Russia’s seafood exports showing positive trends

In 2018 the Russian Far East customs office cleared 1.5 million metric tons of seafood for export to the international market, or 9.3% up as compared to 1.41 million tonnes last year, according to the office’s head Yuri Ladynin.

In terms of value, seafood export shipments jumped by 28% from 2.56 billion USD in 2017 to 3.2 billion USD in 2018. Major importers of Russian seafood were China (65.5%, 1 million tonnes), South Korea (27%, 420,000 tonnes) and Japan (3.8%, 58,500 tonnes). Frozen fish accounted for 87.7% of the shipments’ volume (3.3% down on 2017), of which Alaska pollock contributed 45.5%, cod – 13.9%, salmons – 12.8%, liver/roe/milt – 3.4%.

Shellfish exports accounted for 4.5% of the total volume, of which 3.7% were contributed by crabs. The total exports of crabs grew by 6.5% year on year. In the meantime, Russian exports of fish fillets rose 2.1 times as compared to 2017 and amounted to 4.3% of the total volume of seafood exports from the region.

Along with the above products, in 2018 Russian exporters delivered 276 metric tons of ready-to-eat or canned fish products to the international market (1.5% up on 2017).