News - page 13

On December 28, 2018, the Russian government approved the concept of creating and operating a system of marking and traceability of goods. The document is aimed at eliminating the illegal circulation of industrial goods, according to Russia's Federal Agency for Fisheries.

In the closing week of 2018 Magadan fishermen finally got their quotas 2019 for commercial fishery of blue king crab, red king crab, golden king crab and opilio crab in the Sea of Okhotsk, according to Kolyma.

Abrau-Durso Russian Wine House and Crimean Seafood oyster farm, both based in Crimea, have joined forces to set up a chain of restaurants in Russia to offer Black Sea oysters and wine. The chain’s first restaurant called “Dozen: oysters and wine” was launched in Moscow on the New Year eve, according to RBC.

Russian fishery industry still has quite a number of excessive barriers preventing the sector from more efficient operation, according to a dedicated study conducted by the national research university Higher School of Economics and VARPE Association of Fishery Industrials and Exporters.

Russia on holiday until 9 January 2019.

As per mid-December the government commission for development of the fishery complex chaired by Vice-PM Alexey Gordeev has reviewed the draft law stipulating amendments to the Tax Code as regards fees for capture of aquatic biological resources, according to the Federal Agency for Fisheries.

As per mid-December 2018, the Russian fleets continued active fisheries with a 6% rise on last year. By the end of the year Russia’s total harvest is forecasted to exceed 5 million metric tons (namely 5.05 million tonnes). It will be a record volume since 1992 when the Russian fishermen harvested 5.6 million tonnes of aquatic resources, according to Head of the nation’s Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Shestakov briefing fishery journalists on the New Year’s eve.

Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture has turned down a request from the Fish Union (non-profit organization of mostly processors and importers) to lift import ban on pelagic fish (Atlantic herring, mackerel, capelin and capelin roe, Baltic sprat) originating from the countries which imposed sanctions on Russia, according to the Ministry’s press-service as quoted by RIA Novosti.

As of January 2019 the Russian fishermen will be operating in a single fishing space and under a single commercial capture quota as opposed to the previous division to inshore and offshore fishing zones as well as separate offshore and inshore quota entitlements, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (FAF).

Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (FAF) sees no prerequisites for dropping the plans of allocating half of crab quota shares at electronic auctions, according to media reports as per mid-December.

The Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor held a meeting with First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Republic Horacio Reyser on the G20 sidelines in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Horacio Reyser co-chairs the Russian-Argentinean Intergovernmental Commission which from the Russian side is headed by Sergey Dankvert. Minister of Agriculture of the Argentine Republic Luis Miguel Etchevehere and President of the National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality (SENASA) of the Argentine Republic Ricardo Luis Negri also took part in the meeting, according to Rosselkhoznadzor.

In November 2018 a number of fish processing and fishing companies based in Vladivostok-led Primorskiy Krai (Primorye for short) exhibited their products at the largest Asian international show China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, all of them now working at export contracts with new foreign partners, according to Primorye Government.

In the recent couple of years Russia has seen a dramatic boost of catches of shrimp Pandalus borealis in the waters off Spitsbergen in the Barents Sea.

Under the 2016 amendments of the Law on Fishery, as per mid-November Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (FAF) has already renewed some four thousand capture quota allocation contracts for a new term of 15 years as of 2019 inclusive, according to FAF and media reports.

Scientists of the School of Biomedicine of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) have developed an effective method of obtaining an antiseptic from fish oils. This new patented remedy can be used for treatment of skin and mucosae diseases caused by bacteria, microscopic fungi and protozoa. In their studies the scientists have used fish oil from such commercial Pacific fish as Japanese pilchard, saury, herring, Alaska pollock and others, according to the FEFU.

Russia’s seafood imports in the first nine months of 2018 displayed a big leap in value and a small setback in volume on the same period of 2017, according to a report prepared by Fishnet.ru analysts based on raw customs records.

A working meeting between Konstantin Savenkov, Deputy Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, and Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Head of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department of the Republic of Vietnam was held on November 19. The representatives of the Russian Embassy in Vietnam also took part in the meeting, according to Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance).

The results of the first three quarters of 2018 show that Russia is leading among all of Britain’s trade partners with respect to the growth rate of their trade turnover (the growth rate of Russian exports amounts to 34.5%). Total trade turnover between the two countries for the January to September period increased by 20.2% as a result of Russian hydrocarbon exports, as well as Russian non-energy non-commodity exports (metals, chemicals, fertilisers, turbines, seafood, etc.), according to the 4th Russian–British Business Forum.

Since last August, 55,000 e-visas have been issued to foreign citizens willing to visit the Russian Far East. Most applications come from China (42,000 visas issued) and Japan (10,800 visas), according to the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East. 

The Russian government is working to bring traceability routines of separate industries into a single traceability system for animals, plants and products thereof, according to German Zverev, President VARPE (Association of Russian Fishermen, Processors and Exporters).