Russia's seafood industry newsreel

In the first half of September 2010 Russia's fishery industry has been facing a number of important developments, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/.

Among others some most important events have been as follows:

• On 15 September 2010 Russia and Norway are going to sign three important agreements in Murmansk. The first two agreements will cover exploitation of fish and oil and gas resources, while the third one will become a historical document about a delineation line in the Barents Sea. Debates about the marine border have continued for as long as forty years and only in April 2010 Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced readiness to sign the agreement. Five months after such announcement the sides have spent to settle all the details.
• According to the decisions made at the 38th session of Mixed Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission, from 8 to 11 September 2010 working groups of Russian and Norwegian experts met in Bergen, Norway, to discuss conversion factors for cod and haddock products. In the course of the meeting the sides were going to scrutinize the results of mutual research surveys in order to work out single conversion factors for the above mentioned fish products.
• On 10 September 2010 in Sakhalin's capital of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk the Russian-American Intergovernmental Consultancy Committee on Fisheries gathered for its 21st session.
• Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency hosted Russian-Cuban talks on implementation of the fisheries agreement between Russia's Government and the Government of the Republic of Cuba. In the course of the meeting the sides have discussed a program on mutual research surveys on the Russian scientific vessel in the Cuban waters scheduled on October-November 2010.
• Under the framework of the Russian-Ukrainian Agreement on fisheries in the Sea of Azov dated 14 September 1993, from 7 to 9 September 2010 the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk hosted meetings of working groups on the nations' cooperation in the sphere of fisheries in the Sea of Azov. The working groups were to modify measures on commercial fisheries management in the Sea of Azov in 2011.
• Moscow-based State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) hosted a meeting devoted to restructuring of federal budget debts of Sakhalin fish firms acting as freighters of Sterkoder supertrawlers. According to Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency Head Andrey Krainy, 15 Sakhalin supertrawlers in question, who were built in early 1990s abroad under the state guarantees, will be allowed to return to the sea within a couple of months. Under the government's order, the nation's Ministry of Finance, the Federal Fisheries Agency and Vnesheconombank have introduced amendments into the Law on Budget which provide for restructuring of owners' debts and the vessels' freighters before the federal budget.
• Chilean Government and Association of Chilean Mussel Producers (AMI Chile) have showed their willingness to invest 1 million USD into research work on prospects for promoting the Chilean mussels on the Russian market. The draft project has been developed and announced by Corporation for the Promotion of Production (CORFO). Now the project is one of nine winners in the competition of Sector Brands 2010 and it has been forwarded for brand development for Chilean mussels export to the markets of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
• From 1 January 2010 by September 2010 Kaliningrad inspectors from Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) checked 68 fish processing companies and the commission has made a conclusion that all those plants comply with the veterinary and hygiene standards for storage, processing and sales of imported seafood products.
• In the first half of 2010 Russia's import of frozen blue whiting dramatically increased, though the development failed to stop prices from rising. More specifically, shipments of frozen blue whiting to Russia in January-June 2010 amounted to 13,141 tonnes, more than 8 times up on 1609 tonnes imported in the same period last year. Despite such a strong rise of supply the blue whiting prices in September grew by ca.20-25% from RUR25.00-26.00 per kilo to RUR31.00-32.00 per kilo. The market participants explained such trend by the lack of salmon supply on the market and consumers' switch to cheaper prices such as blue whiting.