Scarborough (United Kingdom) (AFP)

A desaster".

In the north of England, seafood fishermen remained at the quayside on Monday, prevented from selling their highly perishable catches after the French border was closed in the midst of a pandemic, a blow in this normally prosperous Christmas period.

"We had never been confronted with this situation before, never. Now it is the second time because of the Covid" this year, laments Matthew Barnes, 33, who fishes for scallops off the port of Scarborough.

Already in the spring, "we had to stop fishing for a month, which was a financial disaster", he explains.

Without being able to sell the precious molluscs to processing factories which then ship them to the continent via France, the fisherman has given up going out to sea with his boat, which usually brings back three tonnes a day.

"We had to stop fishing because they cannot ship our product," laments the one who has been fishing since he was 10 years old, a family tradition.

- Blocked exports -

After the discovery of a new, more contagious variant of the new coronavirus, many countries have suspended arrivals from British territory, shaking up its supply chains, which are very dependent on truck rotations.

France has banned accompanied transport of goods for 48 hours, resulting in the closure of the port of Dover, the main cross-Channel exit port in England, in the direction of departures.

An acute problem for seafood exporters, prevented from shipping their highly perishable cargoes to the continent, where they are in great demand during this festive period.

For Matthew Barnes, the immediate impact in terms of catches is limited, because it was anyway his last day of fishing before a winter break and the resumption of activity in early January.

"But if it lasts more than two weeks, then yes", he fears another "disaster".

It is already suffering from falling prices due to the climate of uncertainty arising from the pandemic, to which the end of the post-Brexit transition period will soon be added.

"Christmas and New Years are always big markets for the UK seafood industry, with prices and demand soaring. But not this year," he said.

- "Millions" of losses -

The United Kingdom and the European Union are engaged in final negotiations, very difficult, to try to reach a trade agreement before December 31, when the United Kingdom leaves the single market and the customs union.

But these stumble in particular on fishing and the division of British territorial waters.

According to Seafish, a British association representing the sector, exports to France of seafood for human consumption reached 7,417 tonnes in December 2019 for a value of 62.8 million pounds sterling (68 million euros).

"Europe is an important market for some of the UK's high value added seafood, including scallops which are exported alive and highly perishable," said Aoife Martin, COO of Seafish.

"Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year" and "we know that many seafood businesses are affected, especially in Scotland," she added in a statement to AFP. .

In Scotland, the Scottish Seafood Association called on the government to compensate its members "who will lose millions of pounds" because of the closure of the French border.

It is a "disaster" for companies already hit hard by the first wave of the pandemic in March, said its chief executive, Jimmy Buchan, on Twitter.

Crab fisherman in Scarborough, Sam Crowe, 26, also reluctantly left out on a promising sea trip.

"I don't have a lot of money in the bank to live on. We expected a good trip to sea for Christmas, which could have brought us a lot of money. Obviously, everything has been stopped," regrets- he does.

Its catches are mainly intended for export: "it is impossible for the English population to eat (...) everything that is caught!".

© 2020 AFP