Seafish Levy

The FMA like many other companies and organisations were surprised that the Court of Appeal overturned the original High Court decision in respect of the Seafish Levy. We believe that Seafish do a very good job in supporting and representing the UK Seafood Industry therefore we are delighted with the latest update. We delighted to tell you that Defra has been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

We are hopeful that this process will eventually lead to the restoration of a levy on imports. In the meantime, Seafish will continue to collect the domestic levy and seek to use it to provide value to the industry.

They will continue discussions with Government sponsors on the support needed in the interim and on their longer term future.

Any queries should be directed to the following Seafish executives John Rutherford, Jon Harman or Paul Williams will deal with any questions you may have.

In the interim period we suggest our members’ adhere to the advice below.


The current situation is that until the Supreme Court decide that
A. there is case to Appeal and depending on the outcome the levy is either paid to Seafish or returned to the Merchant.
B. if the decision is that levy has to be paid the legal responsibility will fall to the Agent to collect and pay the levy to Seafish

The Grimsby Fishing Vessel Owners Association and the FMA recommends that members’ continue to pay the levy until the Courts decide in order to avoid any unnecessary complications that may arise in the subsequent collection of the levy.
We believe the status quo should remain with levy being collected by Agents for all fish sold through the Grimsby Fish Market.