Russia's First Vice-Premier responding to fishermen's concerns over mandatory seafood export via fish exchanges
In response to fishermen's concerns First Vice-Premier Viktor Zubkov has rejected the draft order on establishment of seafood export exchanges and mandatory export trade via these houses forwarding the document for review to the Federal Fisheries Agency. The decision was warmly welcomed by the nation's Fishermen, Processors and Exporters Association VARPE, Coordination Council of Fishery Unions of the Russian Far East and the RFE's Fishery Research Council (the latter two pressing for review of the draft's legal and economic aspects), reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to Pollock.Ru.
Commenting on the decision, VARPE's President Yuri Kokorev says that the existing draft order violates Point 3.5 Article 19 of Russia's Federal Law No.166-FZ dated 20 December 2004 "On Fishery and Conservation of Aquatic Biological Resources" providing for voluntary participation in trading at the exchange.
According to Kokorev, the draft order provides for mechanisms which are completely absent in those countries to which the authors of the draft refer. The catches are traded at exchange houses in 22 countries of the world, however the deals are transacted not by random buyers at regular commodity and stock exchanges (as the draft order says), but by seller co-ops of the fishing companies at their own special warehouse and coldstore premises. Therefore the term of "exchange" does not reflect the special character of such establishments' emergence and functioning, as well as noticeable differences in their normative and legislative status and mechanism of work. Moreover, the use of such term in Russian fishery law often leads to incorrect definition of their activity.
A fish exchange is a principally different mechanism in terms of economic content, legal status and sales procedure as compared to commodity and stock exchanges, says President of Russia's Pollock Association Mr. German Zverev.
The largest unions of the Russian fishermen have offered their variant of the Government's order, providing for establishment of trading sites for state and municipal purchases of aquatic bioresources. According to Mr. Zverev, this idea is much more viable taking into account the Agency's plans of opening a social chain of cheap fish shops called Okean and the need to fill them with fish.