Last week, Florigo director Robert Furey joined a special fact-finding visit aboard the deep-sea fishing trawler The Kirkella. Organised by Collins Seafood, the trip also welcomed Graham Kennedy of the award-winning Bells fish and chip shop, bringing together some of the industry's most respected names.
With the price of fish continuing to rise, this visit offered a rare, first-hand look at the extraordinary efforts the commercial fishing industry is making to improve quality, modernise packaging, and deliver a consistently superior product to operators and their customers.
The Kirkella is far more than a fishing vessel, it's an industrial operation at sea.
On board, the trawler runs a complete factory line: fish is graded, cut, packed, and frozen within just two hours of being caught. That extraordinarily short window from sea to storage means the product reaching your kitchen is as fresh as commercially possible, giving fish and chip operators the ability to serve a consistent, high-quality product every single time.
The Kirkella specialises in two of the UK's most-loved species, cod and haddock, and operates at an impressive scale, netting up to 2.3 million fish per trip. For shop owners concerned about supply reliability and portion consistency, this level of volume and specialisation is a significant reassurance.
Rising fish costs are a real pressure for operators right now. But visits like this reveal something important: the industry is investing, in technology, in traceability, and in quality control. Understanding where your fish comes from and how it's handled helps you communicate that value confidently to your customers.
The Kirkella has now headed back out to sea and is due to return in June with its latest catch, perfectly timed for the summer holiday season, when demand for great fish and chips peaks across the UK.
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