More than 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses in England will secure direct cash grants via fisheries support scheme
The UK Government has announced financial support for fishing businesses affected by COVID-19 outbreak. (Credit: Crown copyright)
The UK Government has announced £10m funds for the fishing and aquaculture businesses in England, in a bid to protect the businesses affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
In England, over 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses will secure direct cash grants via fisheries support scheme.
An additional £1m fund will be provided for the projects to help fishermen sell their catch in their local communities.
The funds will allow fishing businesses to establish new ways to market and sell their catch, enabling to better support the sector and local communities that depend on the industry.
Most of the fish caught by the local communities will be exported. The English fishing fleet that catches fish stocks such as hake, scallops and crab were affected by the closure of traditional export markets, as well as decreased demand from the hospitality sector.
The support scheme will run for three months to meet the immediate requirements of the fishing businesses
Designed to run for three months, the support scheme helps to implement measures to meet the immediate requirements of the industry
The scheme will assist English fishing and aquaculture businesses to meet their fixed costs such as insurance, equipment hire, and port costs. It is mainly useful for the smaller fisherman.
The fund can be accessed by under-24m vessel owners in the catching sector. They need to have fishing licences registered in England and recorded sales of £10,000 or more in 2019.
Fixed business costs have to be covered with the provided grants. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) will reveal the details of the eligibility criteria, and the funds will also be administered by the MMO.
Marine Management Organisation CEO Tom McCormack said: We’ve continued to stay closely engaged with the fishing industry and are very much aware of the difficulties many fishing businesses have been facing with the downturn in markets for fish and shellfish.
“We absolutely acknowledge the importance of our fishing industries and share concerns about these current impacts – it is our problem too.”
In February, the UK Seafood Innovation Fund announced that it is seeking a second round of applications for innovation projects to transform the seafood industry.