AIC at 20: Avoiding trade disruption and tariffs for UK fish feed exporting businesses
As AIC marks 20 years as the UK agri-supply industry’s leading trade association, we're looking back at some of its greatest achievements since it was founded in 2003.
Each week throughout 2023, we’ll explore a major achievement where AIC represented its Member businesses, promoted the benefits of modern commercial agriculture in the UK, and supported collaboration throughout the food chain.
This week we look back at how AIC contributed to successful lobbying from the aquaculture industry supply chain to secure continuity agreements with Iceland and Norway for confirmed tariff-free UK fish feed exports.
Tariff threat
In 2019 and 2020, AIC acted on concerns from Member businesses operating in the fish feed market that EU Exit would mean significant trade disruption and risk considerable tariffs imposed on products being exported to major markets in Norway and Iceland.
Norway is Europe's largest producer of salmon, while Iceland is the fourth largest with its production growing rapidly in recent years, meaning these countries have a huge demand for fish feed.
Working with the rest of the UK's aquaculture industry, AIC made the successful case to Government that it should reach an agreement in this area and avoid undermining this sector.
Efforts included highlighting industry concerns to the then Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary of State George Eustice MP, and providing detailed information on fish feeds and their ingredients to Defra’s trade negotiating teams.
Without such agreements, AIC Members’ trade to EFTA and EU states could have been disrupted, and the applied tariff rates for export of UK produced fish feed to Norway and Iceland would have been 42.8% and 52% respectively under World Trade Organisation rules.
Watch the video below for an overview of the UK feed sector.
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Authors
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.
