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NORWEGIAN fishing and seafood export companies will be heading to Grimsby for a major conference in two weeks - hoping this time that the snows stay away.
The conference was originally scheduled for December 1st last year, but the night before Grimsby was cut off by one of heaviest snowfalls seen for years. In fact the Norwegian delegation said they had seen nothing like it even in Oslo.
The snow blocked roads and made it almost impossible to get around Grimsby in ordinary vehicles, so the event had to be abandoned. Now it has been re-scheduled for March 16th at the Humber Seafood Institute.
This event is hosted by The Norwegian Seafood Export Council based in Tromso, Norway, with its regional office responsible for UK marketing based in Paris, France.
Currently Norway exports seafood to the UK in the region of £245 million per year of which approximately £82 million is shipped directly from Norway into the Ports of Grimsby & Immingham. which handle half a billion pounds worth of fish from all sources.
The Greater Grimsby & Humber Seafood processing cluster which processes 70 per cent of the UK’s consumed seafood is reliant on North Atlantic seafood supplies of predominately of cod, haddock and salmon.
Led by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council chairman Rolf Domstein, has brought together experts from Norway to speak on topics such as, Fisheries Management, Food Safety and Green Logistics as well as traditional exporters of Fresh & Frozen Seafood.
Simon Dwyer, Chairman of the Trade Corridor Group that is responsible for developing trade opportunities for the seafood cluster and whose operating partner is The Grimsby Institute for Further & Higher Education said: “This event has generated tremendous interest. Seafood trade with Norway has been established for many years but due to a combination of factors including an increase in quotas, a downturn in other North Atlantic supplies, plus the enormous appetite for fish that feeds the UK’s leading seafood cluster, there is a mutual desire to establish new trade links and partnerships. We expect to see a growth in seafood trade from Norway and that in turn will see additional seafood shipped through the ports of Grimsby & Immingham. We also expect new initiatives such as, the likelihood of flying in fish as air-cargo direct from West Coast Norway to Humberside Airport.”
Wynne Griffiths, chairman of the Humber Seafood Institute, said he was delighted to be able to host the conference because Norway was a crucial partner to the UK processing industry in helping to meet increasing UK consumer demand for quality seafood.
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