International seafood group controlling major share of Russian cod in the Barents Sea
Ocean Trawlers Holding Limited, incorporated in Hong Kong and owned jointly by the Russian and Norwegian businessmen, has established control over a large share of the Russian cod supply from the Barents Sea, reports http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) with reference to fishery sources in Murmansk and the company's official website.
Established in 1997 by Magnus Roth (Norway) and Vitaly Orlov (Russia) Ocean Trawlers now handles approximately 120,000 metric tonnes of fish and seafood yearly with cod standing out as a major part of the assortment. The firm claims it is the biggest supplier of cod from the Barents Sea where Russia's cod quota 2010 has been approved at 259,045 tonnes, of which the holding company handles a large share through long-term supplier agreements with fixed delivery quantities. The company says that over the years, it has supported its suppliers in various forms and forged a strong relationship. Some examples are vessel lease financing, prepayments, ongoing service and technical support, maintenance.
To give just one example, about two years ago the concern provided a loan of $10 million to Murmansk Trawl Fleet (Russia's largest cod quota holder in the region) to finance purchase of M/V "Newfoundland Marten" at a price of USD 13,750,000 from Fishery Products International Ltd.
To assure they are handling only fish within quota, the company has voluntarily put a Quota Monitoring procedure in place. Every delivery is ticked off against the official quotas given by the authorities so that Ocean Trawlers could continuously monitor the balance of quotas available for their suppliers.
In the Barents Sea, the fishing is strictly regulated, resulting in systematic resource management. Various governmental authorities monitor and police the fishing to ensure harvesting is conducted in a responsible and lawful manner. This has provided a stable and predictable environment to operate in.
Ocean Trawlers says that is also a leading distributor of cod and haddock in North America, and the largest processor of cod in China.
Backgroud
The founding of Ocean Trawlers Group goes back to 1997 when its predecessor was established in Norway. In Aug 2003, the seafood trading business was transferred to Hong Kong. Around the same time, the processing business (already present in Hong Kong since 2000) was integrated into the Group. From this platform, the Group has steadily developed both upstream and downstream.
Ocean Trawlers Holding Limited is the flagship holding company of the Group, which organizes its fish and seafood business in an integrated manner along the supply chain model: harvesting - trading - processing - distribution.
Ocean Trawlers uses a "program customers - preferred buyers" approach for its trading providing high and stable levels of quality supply under long-term contracts to a limited number of program customers. The Group's 20 biggest customers purchase about 85% of its deliveries.
Ocean Trawlers maintains a well-balanced mix between customers in various industrial segments, such as filleting, salting, frozen at sea, industrial users, regional importers and distributors. To fulfill the partnership strategy with its customers, Ocean Trawlers has developed a full service supply chain, where raw material sourcing, reprocessing, logistics and quality control is offered as a total solution.
All the processing factories run by Ocean Trawlers Group are certified according to HACCP and ISO 9000 and have obtained EU approval.