UK Fisheries Minister Visits Grimsby
July 06, 2021
DEFRA UK Fisheries Minister, Victoria Prentis MP, visited the Grimsby Seafood Cluster to meet seafood businesses and participate in a Q&A session with Grimsby based processors of all types of fish and seafood.
Together with Great Grimsby MP, Lia Nici, the Minister toured Flatfish Limited facility with CEO of Seafish Industry Authority, Marcus Coleman, were they heard about Flatfish’s plans for a £5m investment. They then visited Young's Seafood to meet Simon Smith, CEO and Andy Rutherford, CFO.
After hearing about the growth in jobs that Young's are creating, a virtual round table Q&A took place with the industry. Facilitated by Cluster Director, Simon Dwyer, the Minister listened to experiences post-Brexit with exports to EU and Northern Ireland, then import concerns for fresh fish from Norway and Iceland post-1st October, following new import rule changes and finally, Patrick Salmon of Alfred Enderby talked about the traditional smoked fish Geographical Indicator status and promoting more consumers to eat more fish from Grimsby.
The Minister commented that she is confident that Grimsby is well placed to exploit the benefits of a growing local economy with a specialism in seafood.