Iceland woes could hit fish sales

About 80% of Grimsby's imported fish comes from Icelandic trawlers

The fish processing industry in Grimsby and Hull could be badly hit by the economic turmoil in Iceland, managers at the Humber ports have warned.

Most of the fish imported by seafood firms in the region comes from Iceland.

But there are fears that many Icelandic trawlermen could go out of business as they rely on loans from their country's failed banks to run their vessels.

Grimsby Fish Market chief executive Martyn Boyers said: "There is a real chance that supplies could dry up."

That would have a serious impact on the local economy as Grimsby and Hull are home to the biggest fish processing industry in Europe.

Major investment

Mr Boyers said all the fish coming into Hull's Fishgate auction house and about 80% imported by Grimsby Fish Market were currently caught by Icelandic fishermen.

"We have got a lot of Icelandic-owned companies and Icelandic people who have invested a lot of money and created a lot of jobs in the Humber fish industry and we rely on that fish supply from Iceland," he said.

"Fishermen in Iceland who borrow money to run their vessel might borrow it from banks that have gone insolvent and therefore not be able to use their boats to catch fish."

Mr Boyers said that if supplies from Iceland were significantly disrupted, the Humber ports might look to Norway, the Faroe Islands or even Russia for fish.

"We have no axe to grind with Iceland and we've had a long-term, very good relationship with them," said Mr Boyers.

"However, the bigger picture is that there is financial turmoil and fish processing is very important to this area."