Selling seafood directly to consumers — Seafish

Selling catch directly to consumers

Our guides can help fishing businesses sell their catch directly to consumers.

Fishing vessels owners can sell their catch directly to consumers. This can be done from your vessel at the quayside or from a van. It is important that you are aware of the legislation around selling direct from your vessel or a fish van. 

Selling your catch direct from your boat

Fishing vessel owners can sell certain types of seafood to directly to consumers for their own personal consumption. This means where it is going to be eaten by a customer and their family and not sold on to anyone else. We’ve created guides to explain what you need to do to meet the regulations. They also highlight the food safety requirements that apply. Guides for England and Scotland are available to download below. 

Materials to promote direct selling

Posters
We’ve created posters which can be used to promote direct sales from the quayside. The artwork files for the posters are available to download from the links below. For each design there is a pdf version that’s suitable for printing and a png version that’s suitable for online use.

Download the posters from Dropbox

The posters have a space where you can add your contact details. If you’re printing them out you can do this with a maker pen. If you’d like to use them online you can add text with an adobe pdf editor. If you need help with this email seafish@seafish.co.uk with a note of your contact details and which poster you’d like and we’ll send you a personalised artwork file. We can also provide artwork which is branded with an organisation’s logo on request. Please note we will manage requests for this as quickly as possible within normal working hours.

Social media graphics
We’ve also created some graphics that you can use on your own social media platforms. These are available to download from the folder here:

Download the social media graphics from Dropbox

Direct selling guidance for fish van owners

Mobile fishmongers (also known as fish vans)  should take steps to make sure you meet all the requirements that apply to food businesses. It is relevant if you are buying seafood products from auctions, merchants, or directly from vessels on the quayside and then selling the product to customers. It covers what you need to do to register as a new business; to ensure you meet food safety requirements around:

  • Food hygiene
  • Product storage
  • Labelling
  • Additional measures relating to COVID-19

Get in touch

Our Regulation team can help with any questions you may have about the rules on selling directly to consumers.

Fiona Wright
Head of Regulatory Affairs
t:
01472 252333
m:
07876 035746