Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency to use newly-vested tariff powers to protect pollock producers

The initiative has been disclosed in the new context of Federal Fisheries Agency now enjoying the powers of custom tariff regulation for fishery products as the function has been removed from Ministry of Economic Development and vested into the body by the end-of-May Decree of President Medvedev.

The statement towards imposition of import duties on fish and fish products from China was made during an early June meeting of Mr. Krainy with the Association of Pollock Fishermen in the Russian Far East.

Fishery head has made it a point that the Russian-made pollock products are single-frozen at sea and of superior natural quality as opposed to the double-frozen Chinese fillets containing polyphosphates to retain water and the forthcoming import duties are designed to protect the home market from such production.

Andrey Krainy has described the domination of foreign-made seafood in the Russian retail as one of the main problems of the nation's fishery industry. The entry ticket to put the goods on the shelves of the chains for big producers with a range of dozens of products may cost very dearly and in fact the doors to the supermarkets are intentionally closed for the Russian processors in order to sell more expensive imported seafood.

The Agency's director has warned both the Eastern and Western neighbours that custom tariff methods will be used to put up barriers for products of inferior quality. We will not allow to feed our people with such staff when we have own riches of seafood, said Krainy. He has complained that meanwhile the Russian consumer will often be lured by lower price into buying Chinese-made fillets only to discover that the weight of the portion will shrink by 30% after preparation due to water loss.