Seafood

Russian Surimi Production Increased by 40% to 30,000 mt

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The Alaska pollock fishing season (Season A) in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia’s primary fishing ground, concluded on April 9th. According to the Pollock Catchers Association (PCA) in Vladivostok, the catch during the A season, spanning from January 1st to April 9th, reached 830,000 mt, marking a 3% increase compared to the same period last year. Approximately 87% of the total allowable catch (TAC) in the sea has been utilized. Surimi production experienced a notable surge of 40%, reaching 30,000 tons.

Across all regions of the Far Eastern basin, the total pollock catch surpassed 1.05 million tons, reflecting an 8.6% increase compared to the previous year.

PCA reports indicate that pollock product manufacturing followed a similar pattern to last year, with Russian fishermen maintaining production volumes of fillet and minced meat at last year’s levels, totaling approximately 60 thousand tons. Meanwhile, marine surimi production continued to rise, increasing by nearly 40% to 30,000 mt during the 2024 “A” season. Overall, frozen pollock production rose by 7% to 397,000 mt.

Source: seafood.media

Russian Fisherman Caught over 5.3 mln mt of Fish in 2023

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In 2023, Russian fishermen caught over 5.3 million mt of fish, marking the highest figure recorded in the past three decades. This announcement was made by Ilya Shestakov, the Head of The Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo). Shestakov emphasized Russia’s commendable level of fish self-sufficiency, which stands at over 150%, indicating the country’s capacity to meet its domestic demand for fish products.

Source: tass.com

Russia Doubles Seafood Exports to China

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In the first eleven months of the previous year, Russia demonstrated significant growth in its seafood exports to China, with figures revealing a remarkable 102% increase in volume. The value of these exports also saw a notable rise of 38%, totaling approximately 1,100,000 mt of seafood valued at $2 billion shipped to China between January and November.

This surge in exports is complemented by a concurrent increase in seafood imports from China to Russia, which grew by 6% to reach 52,000 tonnes during the same period. These imports included squid, tuna, canned products, crustaceans, and shrimp, amounting to a total value of $286 million.

Noteworthy items among Russia’s exports to China include just over half a million tonnes of frozen pollock, 213,000 mt of small pelagics, 111,000 mt of frozen herring, 62,000 mt of fishmeal, and 29,000 mt of frozen cod, further illustrating the depth of trade between the two nations in the seafood sector.

Source: fiskerforum.com

Viet Nam boosting seafood exports to Russia

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According to General Customs, in the first seven months of 2014, Viet Nam seafood exports to Russia reached $36.2 million, up 5.4 per cent year on year. Viet Nam seafood exports to Russia are forecast to increase more sharply in the second half, thanks to Russia’s lifting suspension on seafood imports of seven Viet Nam companies and FTAs with the Customs Union, reports VASEP.

Seafood exports to Russia increased by 150 per cent in January and then Russia banned imports of pangasius from Viet Nam, exports to this market started to be down. In March, seafood exports to Russia decreased by 22-28 per cent compared to the same period last year.

It is noticed that in 2013, pangasius accounted for 44 per cent of total Vietnamese seafood exports to Russia while in the first six months of this year, this was only 11 per cent.

In June 2014, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent a delegation to Russia to solve technical problems, resuming pangasius exports to Russia, to promote cooperation in food safety control and disease control on animals as well as animal-derived products. The two countries agreed to review and update the information in exchange information on food safety, disease of aquaculture and terrestrial animals.

As a result, in early August, Russia lifted the suspension on seafood imported from Viet Nam for seven companies, of which five with pangasius products and two with frozen shrimp.

In 2013, total value of imports and exports between Viet Nam and Russia reached $2.76 billion, up 12.6 per cent year on year. Viet Nam exports were $1.9 billion, up 17.7 per cent. In particular, exported seafood products reached $105 million, up 4.5 per cent.

Accordingly, Viet Nam will be the first Southeast Asian nation to sign FTA with Customs Union. The Agreement would be signed in late 2014 and early 2015. This would bring great exporting opportunities to Russia for Vietnam enterprises.

The seventh negotiating session scheduled to take place in September 2014 in St Petersburg. This will be a chance for Viet Nam to push Russia to strengthen cooperation to ensure food safety for agricultural products, to increase the number of Viet Nam seafood exporters allowed to join this market, and to regulate microorganism limit in aquatic products.

Russian banned seafood imports from the United States, the EU, Norway, Canada and Australia within one year from date of 7 August 2014 because of political issues related to Ukraine.

Products from other countries would be considered as substitutes. Norway, with the salmon products, is by far the largest seafood supplier to Russia, accounted for 36-41 per cent of the market in the past five years. The United States, accounted for 2.5 per cent market share, offers mostly roes, cod and other frozen fish. Most EU imports to Russia are mackerel, sardines, salmon and other fish types.

This will be a good opportunity for Viet Nam and other countries to boost seafood exports to Russia. Viet Nam pangasius may have the opportunity to return to the Russian market, replacing the white fish products limited due to Russian ban on 7 August.

www.thefishsite.com

Fish and Seafood Exports Increased in January 2013

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Fish and seafood exports in January 2013 increased in volume by 27 per cent, 35.8 thousand tonnes, and in value by 19.7 per cent to $236.4 million, from the same time last year.

In January, exports of frozen fish increased by 27.4 per cent to 156.9 thousand tons, due to the increase in yield and export of Pacific herring, Pacific and Atlantic cod, mackerel, haddock and sea bass, reports ProdMagazin.

Despite the rise in the other species, exports of salmon and pollock declined.

Exports of fish fillets increased by 14.1 per cent to 4.8 tonnes. The main export fillet went to the Netherlands and South Korea. The increase in exports was due to the growth in exports of cod fillets .

ProdMagazin reported that exports of fish, dried, salted or smoked increased by 82.4 per cent to 547 tonnes.

Crustacean exports grew by 11.2 per cent to 2.7 tonnes. Export growth was due to the increase in the export of crabs. At the same time, amid falling catches and the increase in income for the domestic market, shrimp exports decreased to 222 tons.

Exports of shellfish have grown by 9.4 per cent to 1018 tonnes and exports of prepared or preserved fish products increased by 7.6 per cent to 1.38 tonnes.

Source: www.thefishsite.com

Russian Seas Finally Protected by Parliamentary Law

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The Russian parliament has passed a long-awaited law to protect the country’s seas from oil pollution, after the voices of 120,000 Russians were presented to the government during Earth Hour’s I WILL IF YOU WILL campaign in 2012.

The rework included most of the crucial aspects needed to protect the natural environment of the seas from oil pollution, including the establishment of special conditions for extracting and transportation of hydrocarbons on the continental shelf, in the inner seawaters and in the territorial seas of Russia.

The law also widens responsibilities for operating companies to prevent oil spills, including conditions aimed to protect the seas from oil pollution.

Source: www.thefishsite.com

 

New Russian Clients for Food Certification International

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Food Certification International (FCI) has announced the certification against the Marine Stewardship Council Chain of Custody (MSC CoC) Standard, of 32 member companies of the Russian Pollock Catchers Association (PCA) for the Sea of Okhotsk Pollock fishery.

Established in 2006, the PCA leads the Russian Pollock Sustainability Alliance and aims to promote and implement improvements for the fishery. The PCA membership currently includes 45 fishing companies, operating almost 130 fishing vessels, located within the Russian Far East regions of Vladivostok, Sakhalin, Magadan and Kamchatka. This represents a very important step in the expansion of FCI into the Russian market.

Alexey Buglak, Executive Director of the PCA, commented: “The PCA member companies are highly interested in making buyers and consumers of Russian Pollock confident that Russian traceability system for fish products is robust, and our supply chain meets MSC Chain of Custody standard. We believe that FCI expertise and experience will support us in this.”

James Allan, Aquaculture Manager for FCI, said: “Our selection by PCA to carry out the initial pre-assessment and assessment inspections for their members is direct recognition of FCI’s knowledge and experience in aquaculture and fisheries certification.”

“We look forward to working closely with the PCA, and to providing on-going surveillance and certification for their members.”

Mr Allan added: “The range and scope of our fisheries, aquaculture and processing activities continues to grow. These clients, in addition to the two full and two pre-assessment fisheries currently being assessed for MSC certification in the Murmansk area, add significant value to our growing Russian client-base. This further enhances our company growth and continuing market share within the global certification sector.”

Source: www.thefishsite.com

Government Target Milk and Meat Production in Budget Increase

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Beef, Pork and Dairy farms in the Moscow region are to benefit from a subsidy boost of 60 million rubles in 2013, increasing the budget by 20 per cent to 3.6 billion rubles in a bid to support agricultural development, production modernisation and rural housing.

Current Moscow region funding structures grant a ‘pork budget’ of 19.4 million rubles and a ‘beef budget’ of 42.9 million rubles.

Prioritised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food is Moscow’s dairy sector which is set to receive 504 million rubles from the regional budget and a further 414 million rubles from the federal budget.

The 2013 funding scheme is part of the “Development of agriculture and regulation of agricultural products, raw materials and food, Moscow Region for 2013-2020 years”, a policy started in August.

Additionally the regional subsidy for 2013 will support the production of fish and eggs as well as rural tourism, agricultural and suburban promotion of innovative projects.

Source: www.thefishsite.com

Russian fish imports steadily declining

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Fish imports to Russia are steadily declining this year, which means that the country is succeeding in the process of fish imports’ substitution. In April this year vis-à-vis March, imports of chilled and frozen fish declined by 24.4 per cent to USD 171 million. For April 2012 compared to April 2011, they were down 18.9 per cent.

The decline was due to lower imports of trout and mackerel. For the period of January-March 2012, frozen trout imports were down 39.6 per cent to 2,900 tonnes; frozen mackerel declined 47.5 per cent to 13,600 tonnes. For the same period, imports of frozen capelin were up 3.2 times to 37,500 tonnes; sprats up 37.3 per cent to 16,900 tonnes; and whiting by 14,100 tonnes. While imports of herring fillets were up 11.2 per cent to 11,900 tonnes, imports of Chinese tilapia and Vietnamese pangasius declined 36.6 per cent to 4,000 tonnes; and surimi by 14.8 per cent to 4,600 tonnes.

According to the Federal Agency for Fisheries, last year total Russian fish catch amounted to 4.225 million tons of fish and seafood, which is 197,000 tons (4.9 per cent) more than in 2010. Since 2008, the volume of the Russian fish catch is growing annually by about 300 thousand tons per year.

At the same time, according to analysts of the Fishretail, one of Russia’s leading magazines in the field of fishery, despite the currently observing imports’ decline, Russia still heavily depends on fish supplies from abroad.

Source: www.thefishsite.com