Russian fishing and processing combine starting operations under investment quota program

One of the largest fishing companies in the Russian Far East Fisheries Basin – Dobroflot - started harvesting fish out of the investment quota linked to construction of a processing plant. First catches under the investment quota program will be processed at the new plant in the second half of March.

This government program provides companies with capture quotas in exchange for obligations to build new fishing or processing facilities inside Russia. In particular, Dobroflot built a fish processing plant in Bolshoi Kamen in Vladivostok-lead Primorskiy Krai. The new plant will give jobs to 1,000 people and budgets of all levels will receive 3.2 mln USD as taxes per annum.

Dobroflot began catching herring out of its investment quota on January 1, 2020. Starting from the second half of February, when the APO A season takes off, the company will be harvesting Alaska pollock. The APO catches will be processed into fillets and mince at the newly built factory in Bolshoy Kamen. The fish waste will be reduced to fishmeal and oil thus making the production cycle waste-free.

Initially, in its first year of operation, the plant will process the raw fish harvested under the investment quotas only - about 2 thousand metric tons of fillets and APO mince. The company estimates that this year such a big volume of APO fillets will result into a price fall on the Russian market and a complete replacement of pollock fillets which were previously supplied from China now suffering from coronavirus.