Running a seafood business on the eve of Brexit
My Economy tells the story of the new economic normal through the eyes of people trying to make it, because we know the only numbers that really matter are the ones in your economy.
The clock continues to tick down towards Brexit as the U.K. and the European Union figure out what, exactly, the departure terms will be. One area which has long been a source of contention: fishing. EU member states share fishing areas, but as the U.K. will be leaving the EU, that shared access will no longer be guaranteed — possibly meaning big changes ahead for British and European fishermen alike. It’s with this news in mind that we have our latest My Economy story, from fisherman Ronald Scordia of Angelbond Seafood in Glasgow, Scotland.
My name is Ronald Scordia. I’m working for Angelbond. We export seafood — lobster [and] shellfish in general to France, Spain and Italy.
I came from France. I’ve been living in Scotland for 20 years. I have two children here and I’m very happy.
I’ve always been involved with the fish industry. My dad was in the fish industry. We don’t have any particular hours in our industry because we need to work when the products are there. So someday we can work a few hours and on some days we can work long hours.
Brexit is very uncertain for us at the moment because nobody know where that will go. The risk is very simple. You know, with the customs, we will lose time to send our products. Because it’s live and fresh products, we can’t afford to lose a day so our quality will decrease and we’d have to go in the frozen market only.
We need to be fresh and alive. It’s there when you wake up, you know to talk to your customer daily and sell your products daily. The frozen market is a bit flat, you know? It’s a bit boring.
We are reading so many articles, it’s very confusing. I listen to French news [and] Scottish news also. Everybody contradicts [each other] and this is very difficult for me to understand what’s happening in March next year. So it would be good, you know, if we have the answer very quickly.
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