Our Story

Fowey Shellfish Company started in 1995 when Dave Hancock had the vision to create Cornwall’s first offshore rope grown mussel farm. Growing on ropes, as opposed to the traditional method of growing on beds, was a new technology at the time. Rope grown mussels allow the farmer to locate his site in pure water away from the pollution that can be found close to shore. The mussels have a plentiful supply out to sea and grow quicker and larger than their bed grown counterparts.

By 2016 the farm had increased its production to 250 tonnes per annum of Cornish mussel and since then the farm has increased it’s size and in 2018 became the UK’s first Soil Association certified ‘Organic’ mussel farm.

In 2018 a programme of capital investment allowed the introduction of a cutting edge modified atmosphere packing line to maintain a fresh, clean product with industry leading shelf life.

We were awarded 3 stars at the 2020 Great Taste Awards for our Organic Mussels placing us in the top 1.6% of the 12,777 entries.  Feedback from the judging panel included,

“Wow! Lovely plump, moist mussels. These are in a totally different class from the vast majority.”

“These mussels are show stopping in appearance, plump, juicy, with blue, grey and black glossy shells. The mussels themselves are juicy, full of natural flavour, salty from the sea and with real sweetness.”

“Gloriously plump, sea-scented mussels and the flavour and texture don’t disappoint: they are tender, sweet, ever so gently saline and with a wonderful depth of minerality –  really perfect balance and perfect texture, indeed rarely-encountered mussel perfection. A clean finish, with a lingering light minerality, leaving you longing for more. Stunning.”

“Wow! An irresistible bowl of plump and juicy molluscs . Mussels full of  flavour with no need of a bath of garlic and stock – these are something else –  seemingly from another planet. One judge is sourcing train tickets to St Austell…”

In Summer 2020, as we attempted to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic by diversifying, we noticed a gap in the market when we struggled to procure a consistently high-quality Scallop meat supply for our Shellfish Boxes.  We decided that the best plan was to do it oursleves and so in July 2020, we added a Scallop cutting facility to the Mussel plant in Fowey and a team of experienced Scallop Cutters.  Our aim, to supply the freshest, highest quality, hand-cut Scallop meat and half-shells to the local and national market using only Scallops from the hard working day-boat fleet.