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Award Winning Millbay Oysters For Call And Collect

Rooney Fish, Northern Ireland’s leading fish and seafood processor, has launched a call and collect service for its products including its multi-award winning Millbay Oysters.

The company, which is based in Kilkeel, county Down, Northern Ireland’s major fishing hub, has launched the call and collect service to help offset the fall in sales to the hospitality sector in Northern Ireland due to the continuing lockdown.

Northern Ireland’s biggest seafood exporter, Rooney Fish has recently resumed shipping of Millbay oysters and other seafood including crab meat and claws to distributors in China.

“While there has been some encouraging developments on our longstanding trade with China, our home market is still badly affected by the continuing closure of the top hotels and restaurants which were the mainstay of our local business,” says Andrew Rooney, managing director of Rooney Fish. “So, we decided to offer our existing and potential customers the opportunity to call us to order oysters and other seafood including langoustines for collection. This will keep our name in the market and generate some useful cashflow until the lockdown is lifted,” he adds.

The new collection service is available on Thursdays and Fridays in time for weekend meals.

Formed in 1975, Rooney Fish is a family-owned and managed company that specialises in processing, cooking, chilling and freezing fresh whole langoustines, king scallops and white fish such as cod, whiting, monkfish and haddock.

The company subsequently developed its own oyster farm, Millbay Oysters, on Carlingford Lough which is now the biggest of its kind on the island of Ireland. It developed exports to France and Asia.

Millbay Oysters has won UK Great Taste Awards and was named Best Product in Ireland in a recent Blas na hEirean Irish National Food Awards.

The company operates from one of the industry’s most modern and EC approved processing plants with extensive freezing storage capacity. It sources its shellfish from the local fishing fleet, purchasing about 90 per cent of the catch from Northern Ireland vessels.