Exporting fish and shellfish from the UK to Vietnam and South Korea offers growing business development opportunities, especially with supportive trade agreements and rising consumer demand.
As nations with extensive maritime coastlines, seafood has long been consumed as a staple food for many Vietnamese and South Korean people. Consumers in these countries are however also increasingly interested in varied international cuisines and higher-quality imported fish and shellfish – and growing middle class populations are driving demand for high-quality, safe, and traceable seafood from other parts of the world.
To highlight such exporting opportunities for UK seafood companies, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Seafish are partnering to undertake an inward mission visit to the UK in March by a group of seafood importing companies from Vietnam and South Korea.

The group will visit a number of locations to learn about the UK’s wider seafood industry, and more importantly, to have the opportunity to meet with UK exporters to discuss possible business and trading links.
While the core focus is on bringing South Korean and Vietnamese importers to the UK, the visiting inward mission group will also comprise a small number of seafood importer companies from Thailand and Australia. A total of 19 different seafood companies from the mentioned countries will visit the UK as part of the inward mission group.

As part of the group’s visit, Seafish are hosting a series of ‘meet the buyer’ events at four different UK locations – at which interested UK seafood companies will have an opportunity to meet with the visiting companies from Asia and Australia and to discuss possible business and trading opportunities – and doing so in a slightly more practical and economical way than might be involved if having to travel to Asia or Australia.

In addition to the various seafood importers from Asia and Australia, the ‘meet the buyer’ events will also see attendance by representatives from DBT, who will be on hand to discuss matters of wider support and assistance to UK seafood exporters.

The events will also see attendance from the UK Agriculture, Food and Drink Attachés from the British Embassies in Vietnam and South Korea, along with representation from the Export Support Service at the British Embassy in Thailand – who will be on hand to talk about and discuss wider exporting matters regarding the respective countries that they represent.

All interested UK seafood companies are invited to attend the planned events and meet with the various visiting companies.

There are four planned events – to which UK seafood companies would be warmly welcomed.
Details of the four events are:
• Monday 9 March
1000-1600 hours
The Buchan Braes Hotel, Peterhead, NE Scotland
www.buchanbraes.co.uk

• Wednesday 11 March
0900-1400 hours
The Clayton Hotel, Manchester Airport, Manchester www.claytonhotels.com/manchester-airport

• Thursday 12 March
1000-1400 hours
Healing Manor Hotel, Grimsby, North Lincolnshire www.healingmanorhotel.co.uk

• Friday 13 March
1000-1400 hours
Billingsgate Fish Market and Training School, London
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/supporting-businesses/wholesale-markets/billingsgate-market

Endeavouring to ensure that incoming visiting companies have good opportunity to be able to engage with individual UK exporters to discuss trading links, Seafish are keen to schedule suitable meeting times for UK exporters at the various events.

Take a look here at the list of the various South Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Australian importers that will be visiting the UK – and the fish and shellfish species/formats that they are keen to source from the UK.
To register interest in attending any of the events – and the opportunity to meet with the various visiting seafood importers from Asia and Australia – please contact:
Andy Gray, Trade Engagement Manager, Seafish via andy.gray@seafish.co.uk or trade@seafish.co.uk