Russia and Korea to expand cooperation in fisheries

At the 30th session of the Russian-Korean Commission on Fisheries the sides have reviewed the cooperation in fisheries and discussed proposals for expansion, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishery (FAF), the sides exchanged views on cooperation in investment projects. Taking into account Russia’s plan of resuming krill fishery in the CCAMLR regulatory zone, the Russian delegation offered Korea to participate in the construction of krill fishing vessels at Russian shipyards. The initiative had already been discussed with the Korean Marine Equipment Association, which agreed to consider participating in the projects, provided the order would consist of at least four standard module vessels. The Korean side supported the association's intention.

At the meeting, Russia highly appreciated the results of cooperation on countering IUU fishing, saying that Korea provided true information on landings and on the inspections of Russian vessels in Korean ports. Korea reported that domestic procedures had been completed to launch a system to confirm legal origin of shrimp catches imported to Korea, similar to the one that applies to Russian crabs. To speed up the process, Russia will promptly provide information about the Latin names of shrimp species and products made from them, as well as the HS codes.

In 2020 Russia issued 1146 certificates confirming legal origin of live, chilled, frozen crabs and other products imported to Korea. There were no cases of landing non-certified crab products. The parties agreed to exchange information on entry of ships under third countries’ flags willing to land Russian crabs.

At the 30th session, Russia proposed to expand such certification system for all finfish and other aquatic products originating from Russia when imported to Korea. The Korean side promised to consider the proposal after launching the certification system for Russian shrimps.

Despite the difficult epidemic situation, the parties noted that, in general, the plan of scientific and technical cooperation had been successfully implemented. Russia and Korea agreed to scrutinise the issues of expanding cooperation in the field of invertebrate and algae aquaculture, and also agreed to continue joint research on the physical and chemical properties and safety indicators of biologically active substances in marine invertebrates, fish and mammals.

The sides also discussed the results of the implementation of the agreements reached at the previous session. Those covered scientific and technical cooperation, cooperation in fisheries, fishery surveillance and fighting the IUU fishing practices, as well as the organization and implementation of investment projects in Russia.

For copyright please contact Vera Aldokhina at vera@megafishnet.com.