The UK government has announced the funding of up to 23 million pounds (USD 31 million) to support seafood exporters that are most adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of adjusting to new export requirements after Brexit.  Fishing had been a contentious issue all the way through the Brexit negotiations.

When the UK signed the Brexit trade deal last month, it made concessions on fish, with a longer transition period preserving significant Europeon Union access to UK waters than initially demanded by the UK.

"This is in recognition of the unique circumstances of the fishing sector, which has had the most significant new requirements to adjust to, and for whom even a short delay can lead to goods perishing," Xinhua news agency quoted a statement issued on Wednesday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as saying.

The UK’s fishing industry said last month it was disappointed that a Brexit trade deal made with the EU did not represent more of a reduction in the access that the bloc currently has to British waters.

The industry has already been hit by the reduction in demand from the hospitality sector in the UK and other export markets as a result of the pandemic with market prices falling by as much as 40 percent, according to the statement.

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