Value of Russian seafood exports boosted by deeper catch processing

Russia’s fish exports in physical terms have increased by 7.4% since 2016, while in value terms – by 77%, to $ 6.6 billion, according to Russia’s Federal Fisheries Agency.

The big increase in the value versus only a slight increase in supply volumes occurred, of course, due to better prices, but also, which is very important, due to an increase in the share of exports of processed fish, not raw materials.

For example, in 2017-2020, the average annual value of the share of deeply processed pollock in the structure of domestic production was 16.5% of the totel, while in the USA — more than 92%. We compare because Russia and the USA are the leaders in pollock fishing and the main competitors.

Until recently, Russia, in fact, was a fish raw material donor to the world market. In 2021, the indicators of deep processing in the country increased significantly. For pollock, the share reached 28%, for all types of fish put together it reached 24%.