Grimsby’s reputation as the seafood centre of Europe was greatly strengthened this week when it hosted more than 100 industry leaders at the first ever Humber Seafood Summit.
Held at the Humber Seafood Institute, the Summit brought together a panel of respected industry speakers, non government organisations and delegates from across Europe and North America to debate the theme of sustainability for the industry. The event was hosted by the Humber Seafood Institute with the support of Young’s Seafood/Findus Group and Yorkshire Forward.
The speakers included Mark Elscolme, managing director of Yong's and Findus UK, Anita Barker, managing director of Coldwater Seafoods, Margreet van Harn, marketing director of the of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Terje Martinussen, managing director of the Norwegian Seafood Export Council.
The event hailed Grimsby’s seafood companies for the work they have done to address sustainability and responsible sourcing.
Praising the award-winning ‘Fish For Life’ strategy from Young's, a scheme that is underpinned by ten critical steps that are tested vigorously along the supply chain, Philip MacMullen, head of environmental sustainability at Seafish, the industry authority, said:
“We have a lot of market leaders in this region who have thought very carefully about what they need to do and have done it, but there is a lot of inertia. We need to bring them up to speed.”
Wynne Griffiths, former Young's Seafood chief executive and now chairman of Humber Seafood Ltd said:
“The chief executives, who compete like crazy in the market, all recognise the importance of working together to deal with sustainability. It is where this area has taken the lead, be it through knowledge, infrastructure, efficiencies or logistics.”
Just a few months ago he celebrated the Humber Seafood Cluster being hailed as the best industrial grouping in Britain.
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