16 May 06
The Shetland contingent has returned from the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels reporting a successful attendance at this year's event.
Ruth Henderson, chief executive of Seafood Shetland, commented: "The European Seafood Exposition continues to be a valuable place to meet existing customers and new prospects. It is also a useful opportunity to discover what other people in other parts of the world are involved in, and how this could inspire new developments in Shetland.
"I attended the show to represent members who couldn't be present themselves and I have some leads for individual companies that we will now follow up."
Shetland Catch/Shetland Smokehouse
Shetland Catch acknowledges that the European Seafood Exposition is the ideal forum to meet all its customers under one roof. Marketing executive Shona Manson said: "Having a presence at Brussels allows us to meet around 90 per cent of our customers, so it is a very valuable opportunity to do business. The European Seafood Exposition is the ideal platform to promote not only the Shetland seafood industry, but also the destination itself."
For Shetland Smokehouse too, the exposition was a good opportunity to meet with existing customers. Sales executive Alan Leask said: "The show was successful for us in that it gave us the opportunity to develop business relations with contacts that we'd already made. We also made a number of new contacts during the three days, which we will now take forward and hope to convert into new business. The European Seafood Exposition is an important marketing tool for us, providing that valuable opportunity to have face to face contact with our customers."
Shetland Aquaculture
Representing the aquaculture sector in Shetland, general manager of Shetland Aquaculture David Sandison said: "Once again, we had a good stand presence at the show. In my opinion, there was a lot of interest in the supply of salmon and other farmed fish from Shetland, coupled with a generally upbeat analysis of future prospects.
"In particular, there were signs of increased awareness and interest in Johnson's organic cod and also in the supply of Shetland organic salmon. I believe that we are on a route to defining 'Shetland organic' as something that is sought after in the market place.
"Now that we've had exposure at Brussels it is time to push ahead with our portfolio of great product opportunities."
Hjaltland Seafarms/Shetland Products/Lerwick Fish Traders
Managing director of Hjaltland Seafarms, Michael Stark, found this year's event very worthwhile. He said: "We have made valuable new contacts at the European Seafood Exposition. We received a lot of enquiries over the three day event, which we are now in the process of following up.
"It was also an ideal opportunity to promote our new value added processing business, which includes an extension to our factory and new product development.
"All in all, it was a successful exhibition and I am confident that it will lead to increased business for the future."
Framgord
Framgord reported an extremely successful attendance at the exposition. Managing director Frank Johnson explained: "In addition to our Shetland Salmon Natural Choice brand, we presented Shetland Organic and Shetland Salmon Red Label brands at the show, both of which created tremendous interest among visitors to our stand.
"The fish were displayed on slates accompanied by beach stones from around Shetland, flowers and ice and this dramatic display received very favourable comments.
"The European Seafood Exposition is a great forum to meet existing customers and we were overwhelmed by the interest in our three Shetland brands."
Further information from:
Ruth Henderson, Seafood Shetland, tel 01595 693644, email sfpa@fishuk.net or visit www.fishuk.net
Or, Louise Rosie, Shaw Marketing and Design Ltd, tel 01595 692465 or email louise.rosie@shaw-online.com