Fish and seafood exports volume increased

Rosstat’s provisional figures for the Russian seafood exports to November 2020 show different trends for value and volume, reports Megafishnet.com.

In January-November 2020 Russian exports of fish, fish products and seafood amounted to 2,073.8 thousand tons, which is 145 thousand tons (7.5%) more than the same period of 2019.

In value terms, exports for the period amounted to US$4,760.4 million, which is $170 million (3.4%) less than for the same period last year.

In the commodity structure of exports, 87.2% are frozen fish, 5.7% - crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, 5.1% - fish fillets and other fish meat, 1.4% - finished or canned fish products, 0.3% - fresh or chilled fish.

The strongest growth happened in finished and/or canned fish products category - up to 29.9 thousand tons, which is 59.4%, or 11.1 thousand tons more than 2019; frozen fish - up to 1,808.4 thousand tons (+ 8.9%, or +148.4 thousand tons); fillets of fish and other fish meat - up to 105.3 thousand tons (+ 4% or +3 thousand tons).

Exports of crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates decreased by 13.4%, or 18.3 thousand tons to 118.1 thousand tons.

The main export items are products from Alaska pollock, cod and herring. APO accounts for almost half of the fish exports from Russia, vetandlife.ru reports. From January to early December 2020, supplies of this fish overseas amounted to 788.5 thousand tons (44.77% of total fish exports volume). This is 2% more than in the same period, 2019.

The second place in the structure of Russian fish export is occupied by cod with a volume of 175.8 thousand tons (9.98%). Compared to 2019, cod exports increased by 8.25%.

The third position is occupied by herring. From January to December 1, 2020, 161.7 thousand tons (9.18%) was exported. Deliveries in comparison with the same period last year increased by 10%.

Russia supplied fish products to 55 countries. The main destinations were China (53.16%), the Republic of Korea (32.82%) and the European Union (7.5%). These states account for 93.48% of all exported fish products. Among the EU countries, the largest buyer of Russian fish is the Netherlands (5.97%).  It is essential to realize that Rosstat takes into account the first port of discharge only.  For example, if pollock blocks are transhipped in Korea on the way to EU, the volume is accounted as export to Korea.

The main share of Russian fish export is frozen fish - in 11 months of 2020, 1,482.6 thousand tons were shipped overseas (+ 7.41%). The second place in terms of supply is taken by fish fillets and other fish meat (including mince) - 91.4 thousand tons (+ 5.21%). This is followed by fishmeal - 69.2 thousand tons (+ 3.94%), crustaceans - 69.2 thousand tons (+ 3.94%), molluscs - 31.6 thousand tons (+ 1.8%) and other water invertebrates - 6.2 thousand tons (+ 0.36%).  As of December 1, 2020, Russia exported 36.5 thousand tons (-62.2%) of roe and caviar of all types of fish. Russian salmon caviar was supplied to 18 countries, the leading importers were Japan (1986.4 tons), Republic of Korea (697.2 tons), Ukraine (32.7 tons), China (25.3 tons) and Germany (12.5 tons).

Import volume

The volume of imports of fish, fish products and seafood in January-November 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 decreased by 37.5 thousand tons (6.7%) and amounted to 518.7 thousand tons.

In monetary terms, imports amounted to USD 1,784.2 million, which is USD 145.9 million (7.6%) less than in the same period in 2019.

In the commodity structure of imports, 48.8% are frozen fish, 17.2% - finished or canned fish products, 11.9% - crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, 10.9% - fish fillets and other fish meat, 6, 8% - fresh or chilled fish, 4.1% - dried, salted fish.

The decrease in imports of fish products to the Russian Federation in January-November 2020 was due to: frozen fish (by 12.6% or 36.5 thousand tons to 252.9 thousand tons), fillets of fish and other fish meat (by 7.2% or 4.4 thousand tons to 56.4 thousand tons), finished or canned fish products (by 5.2% or 4.9 thousand tons to 89.3 thousand tons).

At the same time, imports of fresh or chilled fish increased by 16.4%, or 4.9 thousand tons, to 35.1 thousand tons; crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates - by 9.9%, or 5.6 thousand tons, to 61.9 thousand tons.

For copyright please write to vera@megafishnet.com.