10-year quota shares for capelin fishery put up for auction

In spite of the world financial crisis and the resulting short cash assets with the fishermen, Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency has announced an auction for sale of the right for making agreements on assigning shares of capelin quotas for the period of 2009-2018 in the Barents Sea, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to the Agency.

The Russian part of the capelin TAC in the Barents Sea is divided into 50 lots, including 32 lots of 1% of the nation's quota each (their starting price is set at RUB30,400), 45 lots of 3% (RUB91,200) and 26 lots of 6.5% (RUB197,600).

According to the protocol of Mixed Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission, the Russian part of the capelin TAC in the Barents Sea has been agreed at 152,000 tonnes thus for the year 2009 1% will be equal to 1520 tonnes based on RUB20.00 per tonne calculated from the starting price.

Applications for participation in the auction shall be submitted within 11 o'clock 1 December 2008. The auction will take place in Moscow on 12 December 2008.

Sole traders and juridical persons registered in the Russian Federation are eligible to participate in the auction.

Comments

Commenting on the decision to auction shares of capelin quotas, chairman of the industry's coordination council Vyacheslav Zilanov said that it would first of all result into a rise of wholesale and retail prices for raw capelin and capelin products which in its turn would cause a rise of the products' final price for the consumer. Earlier all capelin was marketed at home. And, while in the past, when the fish was harvested in the amount of ca.220,000-450,000 tonnes per year (versus to 152,000 tonnes appoved for capture by Russia's fleets in 2009), in Murmansk and Moscow capelin fetched RUB15.00-20.00 per kilo. After the announced auction the product price is expected to grow to RUB50.00-60.00 per kilo because the fishermen have to include their auction expenses into their charges for fish, claimed Zilanov.

The capelin fishery in the Barents Sea is a traditional sphere of operation for the fishermen of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg, which has had a history of more than 50 years. The quota shares were approved and actually valid in the period of 2002-2003. The corresponding agreements were concluded between the fishermen and the State Fisheries Committee. However, from 2004 to 2008 a moratorium for the capelin fishery was introduced under the international agreement with Norway. Now, when the stock has recovered, Russia and Norway have agreed to resume the capelin fishery as of January 2009. Unlike Russia, Norway will distribute its quota between the fishermen under the historical principle and without any auctions or resource fees, complained Zilanov.