Coronavirus (COVID-19): Aquaculture Hardship Fund - application form

Aquaculture Hardship Fund details

• To apply for a grant under the Aquaculture Hardship Fund, applicants are required to demonstrate that the business operates on a full-time basis and have suffered hardship as a result of the loss or reduction of domestic and international food markets due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
• Full-time table producing aquaculture businesses are defined under the Aquaculture Hardship Fund as any authorised and active business that has recorded sales of aquaculture products either a minimum of £15,000 for shellfish and a minimum of £20,000 for trout in 2019.
• Full-time table producing aquaculture businesses that do not meet this definition will be considered where they are authorised and active businesses that have recorded sales of aquaculture products amounting to a minimum of £15,000 for shellfish and a minimum of £20,000 for trout in 2019 (or potentially 2018 and 2017, should 2019 sales not meet the eligibility threshold).
• Businesses with sales of aquaculture products in June 2020 of 85% or more compared to the average monthly gross revenue from sales of aquaculture products in 2019 (or other reference year) of each full-time business are excluded.
• For new applicants, grant payments will cover one month and be the equivalent of up to 50% of the average monthly gross revenue from sales of aquaculture products  in 2019 of each full-time business, up to a maximum total of 84.9% of the average monthly gross revenue from sales of aquaculture products in 2019 (or other reference year) of each full-time business (when combined with total sales in June 2020), with payments capped at £13,500. 
• To support their application, along with their Aquaculture Production Business authorisation, table producing aquaculture businesses that do not meet full-time criteria for 2019 are required to supply accounting information for 2018 in addition to 2019 and 2020 (up to the end of June), including costs and sales invoices, and if necessary, owing to not meeting the 2018 gross revenue threshold criteria, also 2017.
• Successful applicants will be expected to pass on funds to employees, as appropriate. 
• Businesses who are not eligible can make enquires and these will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Enquiries to: aquacultureintervention@gov.scot

This is a fast moving environment with new support being announced day by day; if new streams of funding achieving the same outcomes are subsequently announced by the UK or Scottish Governments, then to allow us to redirect that money to other people in need elsewhere in the current emergency, we may ask you to repay some or all of this grant.

This application round will close at midnight on 25 September 2020.