Majority of people in the UK don’t realise they rely on seafarers
With the support of many otherorganisations Seafarers UK promotes Seafarers Awareness Week to highlight:
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A survey of one thousand people across the UK – commissioned by charity Seafarers UK as part of Seafarers Awareness Week (21-29 June 2014) – has revealed major misconceptions about the scale and importance of the UK maritime industry, with less than half of people (43 per cent) knowing that the vast majority of food UK imports comes to us by sea.
Half the food eaten in the UK is imported and, of this, a staggering 95 per cent comes by ship (a fact known by only two per cent of the public.) Yet despite this, a quarter of us (27 per cent) assume the bulk of our food comes by air and one in five of us (20 per cent) think it comes by road.
The top item Brits can’t live without is the potato – with almost half of those surveyed (43 per cent) saying it’s their favourite food we import. A staggering 465,000 tonnes of spuds are imported every year to support our passion for the potato – the equivalent weight of 38,750 London buses. Next on the maritime menu is cheese – with 40% of people saying they couldn’t live without it – closely followed by sugar and rice (both 39%), chocolate (37%) and the banana (35.5%).
Image Credit:Seafarersawarenessweek.org (click at image to enlarge)
As an island nation, the UK relies on merchant shipping for 95 per cent of its imports and 75 per cent of exports. The UK’s sea ports handle over half a billion tonnes of goods a year* with 1.5 million seafarers employed in the global shipping industry, of which 71,310 are from the UK. Our most valuable food export is chocolate – with 571m exported every year by sea.
Yet, according to Seafarers UK, the vital importance of this hidden industry often goes unrecognised due to what it calls ‘sea blindness’.
An average container ship travels the equivalent of three quarters of the way to the moon and back in one year during its regular travel across the oceans. A single 20-foot container can hold approximately 48,000 bananas – so in theory the average container vessel can carry approximately 746 million bananas in a single voyage – enough to give everyone in Europe and North America a banana for breakfast. |
The top 10 foodstuffs people in the UK cannot live without:
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Seafarers Awareness Week is the biggest campaigning initiative in the maritime calendar and runs from 21-29 June. It is coordinated and promoted by Seafarers UK – the grant-making charity that helps people in the maritime community by providing vital funding to support seafarers in need and their families.
It does this by giving money to organisations and projects which make a difference to people’s lives across the Merchant Navy, Fishing Fleets, Royal Navy and Royal Marines. In 2013, Seafarers UK gave grants totalling 2.5 million to 84 maritime welfare charities and other organisations.
Source: Seafarersawarenessweek.org