Seafish, the trade association that supports the £10 billion (€11.5 billion/$13 billion) UK seafood industry, is taking a deep look in to the regions seafood processing sector.

The research kicked off with a processing sector census, which is carried out every two years to collect information on the size, structure, and recent changes in the UK seafood processing industry.

Data collection has started and will continue throughout November and December, with results published in the "Seafish Seafood Processing Industry Report 2018" due for publication in mid-2019.

A processing sector financial Survey will also being carried out in March, 2019, in order to collect data on business performance data in the seafood processing sector.

As the United Kingdom exits the EU, there is a big focus on employment and recruitment issues in food industries which is another area Seafish has been looking at over the past 12 months.

The group's processing sector labor survey is commissioned by the UK's department of the environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) to collect data annually and quarterly on workforce composition and ease of recruitment in the seafood processing sector.