The Grimsby seafood processing cluster is the largest in Northern Europe.

It employs nearly 6,000 people directly in over 65 seafood processing factories and businesses and 100 fish van delivery businesses.  With the supply chain, total employment rises to over 10,000 employees.

A large majority of the fish processed is imported, predominantly from Iceland, Norway and the Faroes arriving on container or Ro Ro vessels at Immingham.  Frozen products also originate from USA, Turkey, India, China and many other countries.

All the major UK retailers and food service businesses have contracts to buy fish and seafood products from Grimsby and total sales of Grimsby fish products is around £2billion.

With a cluster of c.65 seafood processors, Grimsby supports multiple seafood SMEs as well as a cluster of the UK’s largest seafood businesses including Youngs Seafood (owned by Sofina of Canada), New England Seafood (owned by Sealaska of Alaska), Flatfish and Caistor Seafoods (both owned by Nissui of Japan), Morrisons and Hilton Seafood.

With more people to feed and living standards rising globally there is an increase in the demand for healthy proteins. The seafood cluster is seeing strong UK and international investment and the UK Food Valley provides a natural home to lead growth in fish processing and distribution. 

National policy supports expansion of the seafood sector, with the UK Seafood 2040 strategy aiming to increase consumption to two portions per person per week and grow English aquaculture by 1,000 percent to 90,000 tonnes per annum.   In Greater Lincolnshire, the seafood cluster is attracting investment, including into UK leading recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and expanded processing capacity.  The first new RAS farm will meet over 5% of the 2040 aquaculture growth target on its own.

The seafood cluster in Grimsby is also home to Seafish, DEFRA’s arms length body to support the sector and is home to the UK Seafood Federation (UKSF), to represent the whole seafood industry, which was launched in 2025.  With the University of Lincoln, the UK Seafood Federation has also launched a national programme of seafood training and innovation, and is linked with other globally leading seafood clusters to share expertise globally.

Recently the 'Iceland Innovation and Research Conference' celebrated the links and longstanding relationships between Iceland and Grimby's seafood business. Watch this short video to find out more.