Simon Dwyer

From agriculture and fisheries, food processing, logistics and supply, we employ 75,000 staff across the Greater Lincolnshire food chain, rising to 120,000 if we include catering and food retail.  A remarkable 75% of England's seafood is processed in the UK's largest fish processing cluster in Grimsby. This makes us unique and places us in an enviable position where we are working to become a global force for good in the healthy, sustainable, innovative, food sector.

Simon’s background in maritime, shipping and logistics have led him to operate in senior and board level positions for some of Europe’s largest transportation companies including Fred Olsen, DFDS and Samskip. Simon is passionate about the seafood sector, its history, and its future, and shared his thoughts with us here.

Simon explains that the businesses in this unique cluster represent the whole value-chain of processors and trading activity, from large employers all the way through to independent mobile fish vans that travel the length of the country, selling fresh, healthy seafood directly into businesses and communities. 

"During the past 12 months the larger employers have had to react to an increase in demand from their customers and retailers, particularly for increased frozen products. At the same time they have had to invest in protecting their staff from Covid-19 by investing in PPE and other safety measures. During the first lockdown, and with support from the Greater Lincolnshire LEP's food security team, we issued daily Coronavirus bulletins to businesses - mainly SME's - signposting them to government help schemes, and particularly to local rate relief and funding. This went on for many weeks until parts of food service including fish & chip shops unlocked. Grimsby has over 50 approved processing units and over 100 mobile fish vans, and we are pleased to say that all are still operating.  And those with online ordering, courier delivery or their own delivery vans, have actually seen a significant increase in sales during the past 12 months, showing both the resilience of the sector and the determination of these businesses."

All of this coincided with the end to seamless EU trade, and Simon says the emphasis was moved to supporting all businesses in preparing for import and export trade with the EU and EEA.

" In the main, most Brexit challenges and new procedures with imports have now been overcome but the small amount of exports to France and other EU countries have diminished significantly mainly due to challenges around documentation.

And so the cluster launched its comeback #MadeGreatInGrimsby initiative that raises the awareness of the 1000's of fish and seafood products produced daily in Grimsby. The trademarked logo can be found on the products themselves, office walls, and merchandise worn by staff working in the industry.

"#MadeGreatInGrimsby has introduced online 'cook-alongs' hosted by our adopted chef, Steven Bennet, aka Lincolnshire Chef. We have hosted five cook-alongs with well know Grimsby celebrities including Loose Women TV show comedian, Lee Peart, and Grimsby Town FC record appearance goalkeeper, James McKeown."

The outlook for the cluster is challenging, particularly with new administrative requirements and physical checks for all imports from EU and EEA of fresh and frozen fish and seafood. But Simon reflects that whilst the past year has presented challenges, the cluster has responded well and all businesses that were active 12 months ago still remain trading. Initiatives such as #MadeGreatInGrimsby are breaking new ground.

"Our hope is to overcome Brexit hurdles in collaboration with our overseas trading partners and benefit from the economic growth the country looks forward to."