Growing seafood sector to get €8 mln investment boost
The government has awarded €2.4 million in grant aid to 25 seafood processing companies under the 2013 Seafood Processing Business Investment Scheme.
Adding private sector investment the sector will receive a total of more than €8 million in 2013.
The 25 companies are from Kerry, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Wexford, Mayo and Donegal.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said processing was a high growth area in seafood. Companies had successfully targeted new business opportunities in markets like China, Russia and Africa.
Overall exports rose 20 per cent to €517 million in 2012.
The announcement came at the launch of BIM’s new strategy for the seafood sector 2013 – 2017.
This targets the creation of 1,200 additional jobs, aligned to a total sales value of €1 billion of which exports will form €650 million by the end of 2017.
Previous investment supported by the scheme was €10 million in 2012 and €7 million in 2011.
