Grimsby Seafood Businesses Headline at World’s Largest Seafood Conference
March 24, 2023
The 18th North Atlantic Seafood Conference was held in Bergen, Norway, recently with over 850 registered attendees from 28 countries.
The conference covered a wide range of topics associated with the global seafood sector including land-based salmon farming, global whitefish supplies, and sustainability.
50 representatives from the UK including major processing businesses based in Grimsby attended the three-day conference. Speaking at the sustainability seminar was Hilton Seafoods Group, CSR Director, Nigel Edwards, with Andrew Allchurch, Young’s Seafood Head of Buying, speaking at the whitefish seminar. Simon Smith, Vice-Chair of Sofina Foods (Europe), the owner of Young’s Seafood, presented at the popular investor seminar. Simon Smith also took the opportunity to talk about the Seafood Grimsby & Humber Alliance cluster group and shared with the conference the group’s vision to enhance the competitiveness of the regional seafood cluster through improving trade, investing in skills and having a UK wide-joined up approach on carbon monitoring in the seafood processing sector.
Simon Dwyer who represents the North Atlantic Seafood Forum in the UK commented “The three-day conference was well attended by seafood businesses from across the globe with many of them supplying fish and seafood into Grimsby. Buyers of seafood based in Grimsby were able to meet suppliers from South Africa, Chile, Norway, Iceland, Greece, and Alaska. The conference covers a broad range of topics and this year introduced new topics focusing on industry technology and land-based salmon farming. It was interesting to see how much engagement there was in the land-based salmon farming seminar and its future growth potential linked to food security”
North Atlantic Seafood Forum Managing Director, Andre Akse, said "Outside of Norway the UK is our most significant contributor to the conference. The knowledge, insight, and market expertise especially, from Grimsby, is always well received by our delegates. We're delighted that Nigel, Andrew, and Simon addressed the conference."