Grimsby hit by Icelandic fishing strike

A fishing strike in Iceland is having a knock-on effect in Grimsby, meaning up to 90% less fish are being brought into the town for processing.

Grimsby Fish Market, one the largest in the UK, usually sees 75% of its fish coming in from Iceland.

Now it is more likely to see 100 boxes of Icelandic cod coming from the country each day rather than 1,000.

Martyn Boyers, chief executive of Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises, said he is now looking at making redundancies.

He said: "When a major supplier like Iceland suddenly stops, it means that people have got to source fish elsewhere, which then in turn puts pressure on price.

"But in all cases and in particular Grimsby Fish Market, we're a volume-based business so we need the volume of fish and that's what we've been lacking, and we've had to make some adjustments.

"Really it's down to jobs. We are still looking at the number of redundancies."

Icelandic fisherman grounded their vessels over pay and conditions last year. It means merchants are struggling to get the fish they want.

Local chefs said they are changing their menus according to the fish that is available.

Steven Bennet, Chef Patron at The Comfy Duck, said: "The lemon sole has been a real struggle and the quality hasn't been very good.

"Most of the flat fish comes from Iceland - we just change our menu according to what's been coming in and the best quality on the docks."