Russia and Ecuador launching new direct route for seafood shipments

Opening ceremony for Ekubeks Project of transatlantic marine cargo shipments from Guayaquil (Ecuador) via Panama Canal, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven to Saint Petersburg has been recently held in Saint Petersburg, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) with reference to RBC.

That will be the first transoceanic route of cargo shipments from Russia and Latin America.

Direct cargo trips will be carried out once a week with the help of six new container ships of ice class capable of carrying more than 2500 twenty-foot containers each with large onboard reefer capacities.

The line will be operated by the world's largest container shipper Maersk Line based in Denmark. The Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 500 vessels and a number of containers corresponding to more than 1,900,000 TEU (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit - a container 20 feet long). The company has been actively working on the Russian market with its branches in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novorossiisk, Vladivostok and Kaliningrad. The company's share on the Russian market of container shipments amounts to 20%.

Total investments into the project are estimates at ca.45 million USD.

According to https://www.fishnet.ru/, Russia's seafood import from Ecuador in 2008 amounted to ca.5208 tonnes at the total value of 10.8 million USD. Ecuador supplies to Russia such products as hake, warmwater shrimp, oilfish, pompano, tuna and mackerel. Experts say that launch of the route will reduce the cost of seafood delivery to Russia thus increasing its competitiveness on the Russian market.