Latest news with #CornishFishProducers'Organisation
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'Like octopus, the UK/EU deal is a mixed blessing for the SW'
The population spike in the Mediterranean common octopus is a mixed news if you want to catch crab or lobster, and doubly bad news if the octopus eats your crab or lobster and then escapes so you do not get to land an octopus octopus is valuable catch in its own right - a fishmonger once told me a story about a crab boat which returned to port with pots full of octopus which had eaten all the captive crabs. The octopus earned the crabber almost twice as much as the crabs would have done. 'Used and abused' But the lucrative market for the octopus - like most of our native fish and shellfish - lies across the Channel in continental UK/EU deal is another mixed blessing for the South the UK catching sector - the people who risk life and limb going to sea - it's another huge disappointment, if hardly a campaigners during the EU referendum campaign talked up a bright future for the industry outside the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson's government in 2020 did return some fish quota to the UK - though the main beneficiary was the pelagic fleet in great failing in the eyes of the industry was its failure to exclude EU boats from the UK's six to twelve-mile (10 to 19km) inshore Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation said the industry had been "used and abused". Inshore waters access The Johnson government suggested a better outcome could be brokered when the deal came up for review in we have reached that point and the present government has agreed to foreign access in inshore waters continuing for at least another 12 plans to remove regulatory barriers for exports are - so to speak - another kettle of fish we left the European Single Market, selling fish to France was a simple as selling it within the we left - and under the terms of the Johnson deal - a raft of complicated and costly regulation engulfed exports to the businesses warned they were struggling to cope with something which had previously been so say they have since seen huge cuts to their trade. The especially unlucky ones have gone under - blaming Brexit and its rules in question apply not just to fish but to food exports more them away could allow many business to recover and expand - and, in some cases - stay in business in the first place.
ITV News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
Brexit reset: Has Keir Starmer sold Devon and Cornwall's fishers down the river?
"I voted to leave on the promises of what Mr Johnson told us", says Mike Young, a fisherman from Brixham. "He went totally back on the word he gave us, and it looks like it has happened again now." Mike is saying what a lot of the UK's fishing fleet is thinking today, as Sir Keir Starmer's much-trailed Brexit reset has seen him extend EU fishing rights in British waters for another 12 years, until 2038. Fishing was the sticky point in negotiations over the weekend, which went on into the small hours of Monday morning, when the UK-EU summit was just a few hours away. Like any negotiation, sacrifices have to be made, and for the prime minister to get closer to the EU on things like defence and security, it's clear he needed to make some concessions elsewhere. The EU - led largely by the French - has been pushing for an extension to the post-Brexit fishing deal that would give them guaranteed, long term access to UK waters. It was due to expire at the end of June 2026, with the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation recently calling for a "fairer deal". To get into the finer detail, this was largely about Boris Johnson giving EU vessels access to the UK's 6-12 nautical mile zone - an area off the coast of many communities in the South West that fishers strongly argue should be exclusively for them only. Many voted for Brexit on the promise of total control over UK waters - and many argue they've never seen it. Now fishers won't be able to re-negotiate for at least another 12 years, under the terms of Labour's reset deal, which the Conservatives and Reform have called a big "Brexit betrayal". But what some coastal Labour MPs are saying to me, is that there was never going to be a better deal. They argue that people who voted for Brexit were doing so on 'false promises', and anyone with knowledge of these negotiations knows that this deal is the best it's going to get - for now, anyway. In terms of what fishing provides for the UK economy, it's relatively small, but it's also not to be sniffed at, and it's important. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the sector contributes around 0.03% of GDP. So for every £1,000 of total economic output, around 30p. But it provides a critical source of income, not just through catch but with boat maintenance and tourism. The industry helps with food security and reports have shown it is critical when it comes to community cohesion. Particularly in parts of Devon and Cornwall, fishing is intertwined with identity and can be traced back generations. So, from an optics point of view, the angry headlines are not ideal for the prime minister and his new coastal MPs who now have to try and appease a disappointed sector. They hope that a £360 million investment into coastal communities might help soften the blow, with promises to modernise the fleet, upgrade equipment, and provide skills and training into the future. They'll also pitch this deal as giving fishers must better access to the EU, making exports much easier.
