Kamchatka pacific salmon season facing cold storage bottleneck

Both federal and local fishery authorities are voicing concern that the unrolling salmon season in Kamchatka may run into a shortage of cold storage capacity, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Rybak Kamchatki, at a dedicated meeting, the region’s Minister of Fisheries Andrey Zdetovetsky noted that the situation in the field of logistics is getting worse. There is still a ban on the entry of Russian trampers into China, the largest importer of Russian fish. The Chinese authorities have introduced additional measures to check cargo for traces of coronavirus on the packaging, which increases the cargo turnover period. Bulk delivery has been completely discontinued,

"The previous problems related to the pollock season have not passed without a trace for us. We note that all important storage locations are full to capacity, " said Andrey Zdetovetsky.

Kamchatka fishermen will be affected by this problem first of all, since they are expected to catch about 350 thousand tons of salmonids (75 percent of the total forecasted Far Eastern salmon catch).

It should be noted that the Far Eastern fishermen export salmon products to China not only for use, but also for storage, in order to later return the cargo to Russia, since there is not enough refrigeration capacity on their native coast.

"In general, the volume of onshore storage in Kamchatka is about 200 thousand metric tons. The annual transshipment of fish cargo through the Kamchatka coast is about 800 thousand metric tons. We understand that serious problems are in stock for us, " Andrei Zdetovetsky stressed.

According to him, the free storage capacity in the region is fully booked. The shortage of these capacities comprises about 60 percent of the volume that can be produced on Kamchatka.