First phase of fish handling terminal completed in Kamchatka

The first phase of a fish handling terminal has been completed in the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (FAF).

The project provides for construction of a container yard to host and plug in 200 rrefrigerated containers. When the new facilities are implemented, the port’s handling capacities will amount to at least 20,000 metric tons of cargoes per month.

In other words, the new terminal will actually double the port’s capacities in transhipment and coldstorage of fish cargoes. Therefore the port will be able to compete with foreign ports of the Asian Pacific Region.

It will also help reduce time expenses for fish transportation to western Russia. While at present seafood transportation from Busan to Novorossiisk takes 34 days, shipment of seafood cargoes from Kamchatka to Murmansk via the Northern Sea Route will take only 17 days.

Strategy for development of marine fish terminals

Refurbishment of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy port is carried out in accordance with the Strategy for development of marine fish terminals through the year 2030. Signed in 2017 the document underlines two main aspects for development: complex maintenance of the fleet and handling capacities in the ports of Vladivostok-led Primorye, Sakhalin, Magadan, Kaliningrad, Murmansk and Makhachkala. Nowadays the respective projects are being implemented at different stages.

In the Russian Far East only, implementation of the projects will double the ports’ handling capacities from 1.2 million metric tons to 2.4 million tonnes and their coldstorage capacities from 130,000 to 300,000 metric tons by the year 2030. The number of large and middle class vessels calling at the basin’s ports for maintenance will increase from 200 to 300 vessels, of which 50 vessels expected to call at Kamchatka.

Today more than 50% of the fishing fleet based in the Russian Far East call at foreign ports, mostly to the South Korea and China, for post-voyage maintenance and repair. According to the Strategy’s guidelines, by the year 2030 up to 80% of the Russian fishing vessels will prefer the nation’s ports for maintenance and repair thanks to the best conditions to be offered to the fishing fleets.

By the same target year of 2030 the national program on investment quotas (linked to fish processing inside Russia) will bear fruit with up to 40% of the Russian fishing capacities to be renewed. Up-to-date vessels will need respective port services. Due to increasing fish catches and rising demand for fish on the national market Russian ports can hardly handle larger cargoes and therefore have to get upgraded to new conditions.

National Fish Resources

Reconstruction of fish ports and their return to their initial specialization are under the supervision of the National Fish Resources subordinate to FAF. This state-owned company controls the ports’ quays as belonging to the federal property. The quays are leased from the National Fish Resources by the owners of port’s infrastructure. The respective agreements provide for investment commitments to set up new coldstore capacities and fish processing facilities, as well as to refurbish the existing infrastructure. The agreements also highlight priority of fish handling operations.