Britain’s inshore fleet has been pummelled by Brexit and Covid. One firm hopes to help it connect with its customers, secure better prices and make it a sustainable success
On a bracing January morning in Hastings, the British fishing industry feels becalmed. Just weeks after Brexit, exporters are ensnared in red tape, newspapers are full of doom about fish rotting in warehouses, and lorries are being held in two-day queues. Here on the south coast, Covid restrictions have closed most of the shacks that normally dole out oysters, dressed crab, potted shrimp and other local delights. None of the 20 or so boats that make up the Hastings inshore fleet have gone out, either, for a more old-fashioned reason: the weather. It’s rare they are able to fish on more than 150 days of the year, and today is not one of them. There’s a persistent icy drizzle, and a grey sea tumbles chaotically onto the beach.
Despite the unpromising conditions, Ben King is trying to see the upside. For the past three years, the start-up he co-founded with Aiden Berry, Pesky Fish, has been working to connect fishermen directly with wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and home chefs, cutting out traditional middlemen. Using Pesky’s online marketplace, a kind of piscine eBay, customers can buy fish from Britain’s inshore fleet as soon as it’s landed, and get it delivered anywhere in the country the next day. Some are offered with a “buy it now” price, algorithmically generated; the rest is sold by auction. The promise is alluring: better value for the customer, the freshest fish going and a higher price for the fishermen. Pesky Fish sells more than two tonnes of fish per day from Britain’s day boats and artisanal fish farmers.
