Russia's huge salmon harvest hampered by shipping bottleneck

Russia's huge salmon harvest from the current season is being hampered by shipping bottleneck in the Russian Far East, complains PR head of Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency Alexander Saveliev as quoted by http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/).

Speaking at the press-conference in Moscow on 20 August 2009 the fisheries chief has announced that the salmon catch in the Russian Far East is approaching 400,000 metric tons, but lack of railway rolling stock and high seasonal shipping charges have created a real bottleneck for shipping the product to main Russian markets.

On the other hand, dozens of thousands of salmon have been shipped to China, while big Russian cities are being offered Chinese tilapia and pangasius in excessive water glazing instead of freshly caught Russian fish.

The seasonal increase of railway charges has also hit the business as the rates have increased from RUR800,000 two months ago to about 2 million RUR per railway reefer section (for five cars including the refrigeration plant car) from Vladivostok to Moscow. The rise has resulted into a shipping price input of about RUR15.00 per kilo as compared to ex-vessel product price of RUR28.00-30.00 per kilo, complained the industry's PR-head.

Head of the nation's Fedaral Fisheries Agency Andrey Krainy has urged the Russian Railways to provide more favourable conditions for seafood shipments and help resolve the transport glut problem.