Helping exporters navigate a complex global landscape
At the UK exits the EU there will be some significant changes ahead for exporters and Seafish is responding to increased calls from industry from support in this area. The agile and flexible support we provide for seafood businesses supports the industry from catch to plate and the full range of services that we offer helps businesses to thrive both in the UK and in global markets.
We worked with the Department for International Trade and other international partners to pull together a series of overseas market introduction service (OMIS) reports which provide information and data on a number of key global seafood importing nations. Our resulting suite of export guides are a valuable resource for businesses, providing general economic overviews and specific information on trade environment and business culture, supply structure, retail and food service, key regulations and tariffs, certification and registration and labelling requirements. We updated the non-EU guides last year and will look to review the EU guides when new trading arrangements become clearer.
From conversations and discussions with industry and government it’s clear that that there’s a wide variety of support and advice available for businesses. But, until we launched a new online resource last year, there wasn’t a single place that seafood businesses could get an overview of all the support and advice available across the UK. To bridge this gap our network of Regional Managers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland worked together to collate information on all the support available into a single resource and industry can now access a full list of export advice and support for UK businesses on our website.
Our Regulation team also shares export guidance and a range of information on seafood markets and trade – this helps businesses understand current tariffs on seafood imported into the EU, how to use the UK Government's Trade Tariff website and includes a link to our Trade and Tariff Tool which provides seafood businesses self-service access to HMRC trade data. Our Regulation team is also working to establish an Exporters Forum which will bring industry representatives from across the UK together with central government, relevant agencies and local authorities to encourage collaboration and to help ensure we are focussing on the issues which matter to industry most. For more information on the forum or if you have any other specific queries contact us on regulation@seafish.co.uk.
Alongside all these online resources, we also provide direct support to businesses to attend international trade fairs. Our attendance at these events helps to create an international platform for the UK seafood industry. This gives businesses who haven’t attended these types of events before an opportunity to dip their toes in international markets, as well supporting other businesses to connect with people they are already selling to.
In 2020 Seafish will be attending Seafood Expo Global in Brussels in April, Japan International Seafood & Technology Expo in Tokyo (Aug) and China Fisheries & Seafood Expo in Qingdao (Oct/Nov). Businesses interested in attending can contact Phillip Quirie, Regional Project Co-ordinator, on Phillip.Quirie@seafish.co.uk to find out more.