Top10 main events on Russia's seafood market in 2010

Below follows the list of those ten important events.

1. In 2010 one of the most important events was introduction of Addendum No.17 to SanPiN 2.3.21078-01 "Hygiene requirements to safety and nutritive value of food products. According to the new regulations, the weight of glazing for frozen seafood should not exceed 5% of the product's net weight. The market responded to the new rules calmly with prices for fillets with 5% glaze rising but slightly.
2. In 2010 Russia finally banned use of urotropine in salmon roe processing. Producers switched to other preservatives such as Varex, benzoic acid sodium, etc. Many processors who had little experience in the use of other preservatives complained on worse characteristics of the final product which resulted to supply of poor quality roe onto the market.
3. As of 1 January 2010 the European Union has introduced a new certificate confirming genuine origin of catches which has become obligatory for fish exports to the EU. Nearly within two months the Russian authorities were unable to agree the procedure of the certificate's issue, as a result of which export of the Russian fish to the EU and other countries re-exporting it to the EU came to a halt. Coldstore inventories were consequently growing which actually pushed domestic prices down.
4. As of 15 February 2010 Russia has cancelled mandatory certification of products, in particular, finfish and other aquatic products. The measure has been aimed at "elimination of administrative barriers" for producers. Now producers can place their products on the retail shelves on the basis of declarations. However, the Government of the Russian Federation has increased fines for production of non-quality products ten times from RUR5000 to RUR500,000.
5. Abnormal summer heat observed on a vast territory of Russia made a serious impact on sales of finfish and other aquatic products. Through summer the demand fell greatly down and some processors closed up their production facilities for a holiday period. Due to the summer heat coldstores, both wholesale and retail, got out of order and products were spoiled. September marked the beginning of growing consumption of finfish and other aquatic products, especially processed. Producers of value-added seafood, e.g. salted and smoked, reported about an unprecedented rise of sales.
6. In July 2010 the new Customs code for three member countries of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) was introduced thus forming a single customs territory with single tariffs.
7. For the Russian seafood market the year 2010 was remarkable for high prices of Pacific salmons - pink and chum. After a record high catch and record low prices in 2009, prices for the above mentioned species after not very rich catches in 2010 turned out to be very strong which caused stagnation in sales to the disappointment of traders.
8. In 2010 there was an active rise of prices for chilled Atlantic salmon against the background of rising import of Norwegian products to Russia. By the end of the year the anticipated fall of Atlantic salmon prices did not happen and importers were much worried about the rise of their losses.
9. In 2010 Russian Sea Group of Companies conducted the IPO at the stock exchanges of RTS and MICEX. In the course of auctions the offer price amounted to USD6.00 per common share. The IPO became the first public offer of the Russian company at the Russian stock exchange starting from 2007.
10. In summer 2010 the situation with fishery approval for 12 longliners built under credit agreements with foreign banks and officially belonging to a foreign company was finally settled. More specifically, the above vessels lost the right for fishery as of January 2009 when the ban on fishery operations by foreign-flagged vessels in the Russian waters came into force. By the agency of Vnesheconombank the vessels were purchased to the ownership of the Russian company OOO Kamchatka Vostok (ltd). At the same time, in summer 2010 the company's catch quotas enabled only seven longliners to conduct fishery operations on the grounds.