Brixham fish market has £43m 'record year' of landings

Brixham saw more than £43m worth of fish landed in 2021

A Devon fishing market group has seen its most profitable year, despite fears the industry would suffer as a result of Brexit, local industry bosses say.

More than £43.6m worth of fish was landed at Brixham in 2021, Brixham Trawler Agents reported, saying it was record-breaking.

The fishing organisation, which began in 2011, takes on market administration work so vessels do not have to.

It said vessels from across England and Wales were now bringing catches to it.

In 2020, £35.8m of fish was landed in Brixham, and £39.2m in 2019.

The closest year to the 2021 total was 2017, with £40.3m worth of fish landed, the agents said.

Barry Young said no more fish were being caught than previously, but agents offering good prices for catches

After high expectations, there was wide disappointment across the UK's fishing industry at the deal the government struck as it departed the EU.

The fishing bosses said those changes brought them more than £250,000 of extra administration costs, but added that they had made the best of a bad deal.

Barry Young, managing director of Brixham Trawler Agents, said Brexit changed the industry "because a lot of the fishermen throughout the south coast used to export their fish across to Europe, but they are no longer able to do that because of all the red tape and all the paperwork".

He said: "We installed a system which enabled us to do all that [paperwork] for them and we were fortunate enough that they took that on board and they've come down."

Mr Young said no more fish were being caught than previously, but more had been finding their way to customers through their market..

He said vessels from "up the east coast, Hastings, Lowestoft", as well as from Newlyn in Cornwall, and also from Wales, had been using the agents' services.