Russia to give further big boost to onshore processing

Russia’s fishery head Ilya Shestakov has disclosed plans for a further big boost to the country’s fish processing capability beyond the current targets under the investment quota shares scheme, reports Megafishnet.com.

The move has resulted from realization of excessive dependence on the Chinese raw material market and the desire to sell processed seafood to EU and other final destinations bypassing China as a processing hub.

Speaking at a late February press conference, the official said that Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (FAF) was mulling allocation of more investment fishing quotas to reach an enhanced target of one-million-ton processing capability at new onshore plants to be built in the maritime provinces. At the same time about 60% of the fishing fleet is also to be renewed, onboard factories inclusive.

For comparison, the land-based factories to be built under the ongoing program will have a total processing capability of about 530 KT. Besides, the factory trawlers to be built against investment quotas at Russian yards are to bring the combined capacity to 1.8 million tons. Should the new initiative be implemented the figure would grow by another 500 KT.

Cold stores

According to FAF, the agency is also working at extending investment fishing quotas to encourage companies to build cold stores because the existing facilities cannot cope with fish storage at the height of fishing seasons in the Russian Far East.  

Pacific salmon ranching

Besides, it is planned that the companies getting sites for fish farming may be requested to invest into construction of a hatchery with specific requirements.

However, the government will not support private salmon ranching because of the uncertainties of its impact on the wild salmon stocks.

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