A plea for the government to review findings collated from the seafood industry about the future of its representative organization, Seafish, has been made.
Calls on the funding stream — a levy imposed on fish coming into the country — to be reduced and an “absolutely clear” message for no devolution of the Grimsby-based national organization have chiefly been ignored, according to two leading figures in the town.
Wynne Griffiths and Stephen Parry made their feelings clear at a workshop to hear the findings and the future path of Seafish, following the autumn review carried out by the Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (Defra) into the GBP 8 million-a-year organization.
Mr. Griffiths, former chief executive of Young’s Seafood and chairman of Humber Seafood Institute, attended two of eight fact-finding missions late last year, in Grimsby and in London. He said: “I don’t think the summary of the report reflects the meetings. Top of the list of priorities at both I attended was that the overall levy has to be reduced.
“The other item, absolutely clear at both, was that there was no call from industry for devolution.
“This is a UK industry. Whether you are Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Young’s or Coldwater, the policy you have on fish comes from the consumer, and they are the same in London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh.”
