Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has reported strong take-up of a new support scheme to help fishing boat owners adjust their businesses in a post-Brexit market.
Depending on the size of their boat, grant aid of between €2,700 and €4,000 is available for fishing vessel owners on completion of a tailored training programme, including online business and marketing modules.
“The training modules to be undertaken ahead of receiving the grants include digital skills, sourcing alternative market opportunities and developing new business ideas and plans,” explained BIM’s chief executive, Jim O’Toole.
“We believe they will better equip this sector to face and deal with the challenges they are encountering. I would like to commend how resilient the sector has been in the last two years, and despite the many obstacles ahead, they are determined to overcome them.”
Ireland’s inshore fishing sector of around 1,800 vessels has been hit hard by Brexit. Previously exporting up to 90% of its catch, trade through the UK market is now far more complex.
“The world we are living in is a very different one from that several years ago, and the fishing industry are feeling that keenly, along with many other industries,” said the Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
“I am hugely pleased to see this scheme, provided for under the Seafood Taskforce, garnering such widespread take-up so that vessels owners can adjust their businesses.”
More details of the scheme can be found at the BIM website.
