Priorities for seafood taskforce
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Urgent work required to support sector.
Streamlining export processes, fixing IT systems and resolving trade issues with the EU must be urgent priorities for a new UK Government led seafood export taskforce, Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing has said.
Speaking ahead of the first meeting of the Scottish Seafood Export Taskforce on Friday, Mr Ewing outlined areas where the industry has faced challenges since the end of the EU Exit Transition Period. He said the taskforce’s focus must be on:
ensuring a more consistent approach and understanding of customs arrangements, including providing clarity to EU vessels landing in the UK
Scottish seafood taskforce meets to drive progress
A new seafood taskforce, chaired by UK Government Minister for Scotland David Duguid, met for the first time today to solve ongoing problems with exports.
From:
12 February 2021
A new seafood taskforce met for the first time today (Friday 12 February), drawing together senior political figures, industry representatives and UK Government officials, all bidding to solve ongoing problems with exports.
Chaired by UK Government Minister for Scotland, David Duguid, the virtual meeting was attended by UK Environment Secretary George Eustice and Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism with the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Seafood Exports Taskforce included industry representatives drawn from the catching, processing and exporting sectors.
Political action is required to resolve the problems facing British animal feed businesses that export feed materials and finished feeds to the EU and Northern Ireland.
British feed companies are seeing lost revenue, delays and increased costs sending goods to Northern Irish and EU customers, warned industry body, the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), which referenced the
onset of such difficulties in emailed comments to this site in January.
The export situation has deteriorated [since mid-January] in that what we initially considered were teething problems are now seen as issues over non-harmonised interpretation of EU sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements and some extremely complex issues surrounding the export of feeds containing animal byproducts, James McCulloch, head of feed sector, AIC, told us today.
British animal feed businesses who export to the EU or NI have warned they are still facing 'significant problems' in trading following the transition period.