A Connemara shellfish business is using Brexit-related grant aid for a new packaging and labelling machine.
Killary Fjord Shellfish in Leenane received grant aid of over €16,000 through Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) under the Brexit Sustainable Aquaculture Growth Scheme.
The scheme is funded by the EU under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, which aims to reduce the economic impact of Britain’s withdrawal.
Killary Fjord Shellfish owners Simon Kennedy and partner Kate O’Connor Kennedy say the new packaging and labelling machine is allowing them to produce more shellfish more efficiently, with the packaging material having minimal negative environmental impact.
The business, which has been operating for 35 years, has always had a huge emphasis on sustainability, using recyclable and reusable materials to avoid single use plastics as much as possible, O’Connor Kennedy says.
“In so far as we can we source materials that are local and sustainable, reducing our carbon footprint. For example, we use wooden boxes for our oysters packaging. And we use recyclable hairy rope in our growing techniques that are stripped down and reused annually,”she says.
Killary Fjord Shellfish also sources hard plastic food grade crates locally which are then collected and reused for next delivery, significantly increasing life cycle of the packaging, something the couple are very proud of.
Their business story dates back over three decades to when Simon was reading a copy of the Marine Times while lying on his bunk during down time from his job as a commercial fisherman in Alaska.
“I had been thinking of coming back to Ireland and I saw a ‘for sale’ ad for a mussel farm in Killary Fjord while I was reading the paper. And the rest is history,” he says.
That was in 1988, and over the last three decades the couple have developed Killary Fjord Shellfish into one of the foremost shellfish farms and suppliers in Ireland.
The business is part of Taste the Atlantic – a collaboration between BIM and Fáilte Ireland to promote seafood producers and their products along the Wild Atlantic Way.
As well as farming shellfish Killary Fjord Shellfish offers a “Day in the life” tour, bringing visitors out on a boat to see mussels hauled aboard, harvested, graded, and cleaned.
Once back on dry land, there is a lesson in oyster shucking, and and a “delicious shellfish lunch”.