Major Kaliningrad cannery expecting further production growth

Major Kaliningrad fish cannery KRKK is expecting further production growth in 2006, according to reports from the area.

To give more detail, the output should reach 100 million packs versus 90 million cans of oceanic and freshwater fish, shellfish/mollusks, kelp and poultry on the canned range of some 50 items.

Another novelty has to do with pending approval for export to the EU as customers in Germany, Croatia and Baltic States are already prepared to purchase from RKK.

On the home market the goods are shipped to Moscow, St. Petersburg and further as far as beyond the Urals to million-strong cities of Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk.

The cannery says that it has secured an edge in competition with imported seafood because its canned products feature only natural ingredients without stabilizers and/or preservatives. The recipes are mainly based on genuine sunflower oil which the Russian consumer has got accustomed to, the combine underlines.

In 2007 the plant hopes to expand the geography of sales to the Volga River Regions, Belarus, East and West Siberia, the latter areas traditionally relying on canned seafood from the Russian Far East.

RKK has also won a number of tenders to supply canned fish to such government establishments as the Army, the Ministry of Emergencies and the Ministry of the Interior.

Procurement

To expand recipes beyond the traditional range of sardines in oil, herring, sprat, mackerel and horse mackerel, the combine has started purchases of raw material from the Russian Far East and China.

Along these lines, blanching department will shortly be commissioned to add several more items to the current range of 50 trade names.

KRKK was founded 50 years ago and was able to pass through the hardships of market transformation and now employs about 700 people.