Grimsby is to welcome hundreds of global seafood experts as a major conference is confirmed for the town.
The International Cold Water Prawn Forum will take place in North East Lincolnshire in 2024, with more than 200 delegates set to help boost the local hospitality economy, as they take in the UK seafood capital. An inaugural visit to the UK, it follows the hosting of the prestigious World Seafood Conference in 2015, and was announced as the 2022 event closed in Tromso, Norway.
The town is the gateway to the huge retail market, with world-leading fish processing built to serve and left as the legacy of the globally respected fishing fleet.
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There to pick up the baton was Simon Dwyer, a leading figure in the Seafood Grimsby and Humber Alliance cluster organisation.
He said: “It will be the first time it has been to Grimsby, and delegates from as far as Oregon on the West Coast of the US, the Eastern Seaboard, Canada, Norway, Iceland and Denmark will be in attendance. We’d expect 200 plus, and there will also be engagement for all the local businesses who are trading, processing and packing prawns.
“People will get the opportunity to attend who have never been before.”
The biennial conference is described as providing a unique opportunity to stakeholders to get an updated status from an international perspective of cold water prawns, bringing together professionals, specialists and traders to share information and ideas regarding resources, production, opportunities, challenges and market developments.
Mr Dwyer, who has worked with partner organisation North Atlantic Seafood Forum, said: “I was invited across and explained about Grimsby, the role in seafood, ports and logistics and renewables, the Made Great in Grimsby campaign and also screened the Three Day Millionaire trailer, which they all loved.
“Prawns are a top five consumed seafood species, there are a lot of prawns transiting through Grimsby in terms of cold storage, repacking, and use in added value processing across the town.”
Registration for the North Atlantic Seafood Forum has also just opened, with a strong showing from the town always present in Bergen, Norway. It takes place from March 7.
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