Statistics released recently have reconfirmed the Humber’s position as the UK’s leading centre for seafood and one that’s showing real growth. ABP’s Humber ports of Immingham, Grimsby and Hull handled 41.6% of the fish imported into the UK, showing a 10.5% growth year on year, demonstrating the strong proposition of the Humber ports as a leading gateway for UK trade.
The colocation of ABP’s ports with centres of seafood creation – from fish fingers to gourmet ready meals – creates a highly efficient sector-leading hub providing 5,500 jobs. For example, around 70% of the UK’s seafood is processed in the Port of Grimsby, including every other fish finger eaten in the UK, which along with the town has a buoyant processing sector retaining its links to the fish and food industries.
Simon Bird, Regional Director of the Humber ports said: “This is good news for the Humber ports handling the largest volume of seafood imports in the country. Their strategic locations significantly show the demand for short sea European routes.
“Fish, though not landed over the quayside by a trawler, still plays an important part in the supply chain in the region. The UK is a big importer of seafood, and our ports ensure that high-quality seafood from around the world reaches British consumers efficiently and sustainably, reinforcing our position as a global leader in the seafood trade.”
Simon Dwyer, representing Seafood Grimsby & Humber Alliance and Grimsby Fish Merchants Association and for many years an advocate of using ports close to the UK’s leading seafood processing cluster, said: “There’s been a step change in the routing of seafood into the UK especially salmon from Norway that now arrives in trucks from Scandinavia into Immingham port rather than being transported by road via southern ports of for example, Dover.
“Grimsby is a major UK processor of salmon so it’s logical to ship the product on ferries that use the port of Immingham rather than southern UK ports. In value terms approximately £1.5bn of seafood arrives at the Humber ports.”
Species brought in include cod, haddock, Alaskan pollock, hake, shellfish with salmon from Norway and Faroe Islands being the biggest volume contributing circa 63,000 tonnes. In the 12 months to December 2023, 609,567 tonnes of seafood were imported in to the UK, including 27,736 tonnes through our Port of Southampton.
