Speaking to FISHupdate, Ms Byrne said it was vital to emphasise the “enormous” impact of Young’s plan. She said: “What we really hope to achieve is to raise the issue of globalisation and the impact it has on our local communities. It just seems to me, from a small community in Annan, the impact right across to Thailand and back is absolutely enormous.”

Additionally, she said that they hoped to reduce the proposed number of job cuts caused by the move, which is currently put at 120.

She added: “We have raised a cross party group to meet them (the workers) and we are going to ask the enterprise committee to give them a hearing to highlight the issue again.

“We’re also going to be putting in a motion to the parliament, which will again be cross party supported and we hope to get a members’ debate from that if possible.

“The National Farmers Union is in today as well, so the Young’s workers were able to meet them and of course there’s common ground there on the same kind of issues, such as the campaign for locally produced food to be used in our schools and our hospitals.

“The MSPs are also going to want to come for a meeting, which is a cross party group again to see what kind of impact we can make in there.”

She concluded: “The consultation on Young’s plan finishes on February 14 and we hope that between now and then to try to have as much influence as possible to minimise these job losses and to highlight that globalisation is not serving our communities, and that there has got to be time to draw back and look again at what’s happening across the sectors because we’ve lost other industries through this and it looks to me as if the seafood industry is now heading in the same direction.

“We aim to take this as far and wide as we can.”

Ms Byrne also felt the supermarkets have played a role in prompting companies to send their operations abroad.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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