Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney. (Photo Credit: Council of the European Union)

EUR 8 million granted to revamp Irish seafood processing companies

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, announced the fishing sector is to be injected with EUR 2.4 million in grant aid, which after being enhanced by private capitals, will amount to over EUR 8 million to benefit twenty five companies on coastal areas in Kerry, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Wexford, Mayo and Donegal.

The announcement of the new investments was made at the launch of Bord Iascaigh Mhara's (BIM) strategy for the seafood sector 2013-2017 called 'Capturing Ireland’s share of the global seafood opportunity', a project which will aim at generating 1,200 new jobs and will boost the sales to a total value of EUR 1 billion. This will be achieved by building scale and encouraging competitiveness among the companies.

At the ceremony, Minister Coveney commented that: “Processing is a high growth area in Ireland’s seafood sector and has successfully targeted new business opportunities in markets like China, Russia and Africa. Overall exports were valued at EUR 517m in 2012, an increase of 20 per cent on 2012. This EUR 8 million investment by the industry represents a very significant funding commitment by processing companies and Government to the seafood sector and underpins the confidence of new joint venture partnerships which were significant contributors to the increase in the value of Irish seafood exports in 2012,” the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine reported.

The Minister also remarked that: “The geographic spread of the companies receiving the grant aid is testament to the success of the Seafood Processing Business Investment Scheme and the innovative and creative developments happening in seafood generally.”

In addition, BIM's Chairman Kieran Calnan stated that: “In our new strategy, BIM aquaculture proposals are grounded in Ireland’s ideal position to take advantage of a major opportunity presented by the massive projected growth in global fish consumption. With quotas and natural constraints limiting the amount of wild fish catches available to meet this need, the majority of the additional supply will have to come from sustainable fish farming. Informed market analysts predict a 50 per cent increase by 2020 in the two million tonnes of farmed salmon which are currently produced annually. Sustainable fish farming, when regulated and managed correctly, provides valuable employment, investment and revenue amounting to a 78 per cent increase in volume of production by 2020, a figure which BIM is well placed to help Irish industry deliver on through its new strategy.”

The ever-growing fish demand will mean Ireland will benefit from the development and expansion of aquaculture, a pivotal area of growth in this project, in particular the Irish farmed salmon.

Coveney added that: “The Irish Seafood sector is currently in expansionary mode, it is a growth industry. I believe that through the type of investment supports and strategic plan announced today, the Government can assist Irish seafood processing companies to scale up, diversify further and innovate as they develop new markets, enhancing profitability and job creation prospects into the future.”
 

By Gabriela Raffaele
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

Address:	Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Crofton Road, Dun Laoghaire,
City:	Co. Dublin
Country:	Republic of Ireland
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