Seafood Response Fund – Now Launched

Today, March 9th 2021, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) launched the Seafood Response Fund (SRF). The fund is available to support UK fishing and shellfish aquaculture businesses affected by the downturn of export and domestic markets due to the pandemic and disruption to seafood exports earlier this year.

The fund will directly contribute towards the fixed costs of approximately 2500 fishing and shellfish aquaculture businesses across the UK.

The fund will be administered by the MMO on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

To be eligible for the Seafood Response Fund you must be:

  1. A qualifying business within the UK catching sector
  2. A qualifying shellfish business within the UK aquaculture sector

Qualifying fishing businesses must meet the following criteria:

  • They must be the owner of a fishing vessel of under 40m in overall length registered in the UK
  • Vessels must be licenced to fish by the relevant UK fisheries administration in which they are primarily administered. Vessels administered by Crown Dependencies or Overseas Territories are not included within this scheme.
  • The vessel must be currently registered with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
  • The vessel must have had sales of £10,000 or more, recorded on sales notes supplied by registered buyers and sellers of fish, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019
  • The vessel must have evidence of landing fish caught over the winter period (December, January, February and March) in the years 2017 – 2021.

For aquaculture, businesses must:

  • Operate an active shellfish aquaculture farm in the UK, cultivating and harvesting shellfish for consumption such as mussels, clams, oysters
  • Be authorised by the relevant fish health inspectorate in which the business operates

Click here to find out more about qualifying businesses.

There is no need to apply for the fund. The MMO will contact eligible businesses directly, in phases, by email from the week commencing 8 March 2021. 

If you believe you meet the published eligibility criteria but have not been contacted by the MMO directly by 21 March 2021, you will be able to submit your details and evidence of meeting the criteria via a link that will be published on this page from 22 March to 26 March 2021.

Further information about the fund, including FAQs is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/seafood-response-fund

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