Page 95 - RusRPTApr19

(37%), according to the sector’s development plans drawn up by the government, the Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery Vasily Sokolov told Tass on March 13. "We want to change the species structure of aquaculture. As you see, we [now] have 65% of carp breeding. A different goal is set in our strategy by 2030, that is, salmons should account for at least 37% [in fish farming], because these are the most valuable and promising targets, from our point of view," Sokolov told the agency. The official said that other species would also be introduced into the business, particularly whitefish. Fish has been a booming business and attracted the attention of several oligarchs, who have invested in new fish farms. Fish farmers bred 239,000 tonnes of fish in 2018, Sokolov said. The Southern Federal District takes the lead. The second is the Northwestern Federal District comprising Karelia, which sits on the Gulf Stream and has water warm enough for salmon, despite the freezing winters. It accounts for 88% of trout grown in the country. Salmon breeding reached 28% but carp farming in Southern Russia is still at the leading position, the official said. Huge water fund that can be provided to the business is the key factor in aquaculture development, Sokolov noted. The Agency plans to convert all auctions on water areas to be allocated into the electronic format, similarly to sea areas, he said. Russia caught a record 5mn tonnes of fish in 2018 — a post Soviet record, Sokolov told reporters on November 20. The sturgeon catch in Russia in 2018 reached 675,000 tonnes – an all-time record and the biggest catch in over 100 years. The fishing business is flourishing as bne IntelliNews profiled in a cover story “Russia’s fishy business” in February 2018.
Russia intends to auction off 50% of crab fishing quotas instead of assigning the quotas to market players in proportion to the catch as in previous years, Vedomosti daily said on March 11 citing the governmental legislative commission. The world famous Kamchatka red crab is Russia’s “other caviar” and fetches high prices in export as well as being highly valued by the Russians themselves as a favourite delicacy. The initiative was first proposed in 2017 and was protested by established market players, that had spend $2bn on quotas in 2001-2017 and argued that withdrawing the roll-over of the quotas would lead to disruption of operations and investment among small regional players. Russian fishing business has been attracting investors’ attention as fishing is one of the fastest growing Russian agricultural segments and several heavyweight Russian tycoons have been investing into the industry. Under new rules 50% of all the crab fishing quotas would be pegged to the auction winner for 10 years, with the winners of the auctions having to implement a very loosely defined "investment project". The head of the commission Konstantin Chuychenko argued to Vedomosti that the new proposal will allow the government to cash in on an extremely high-margin business. Auctioning the quotas would bring RUB82bn ($1.3bn) in revenues. In the meantime, previous reports claimed that Russian Industrial Fish Company (RRPK) of Gleb Frank, the son-in-law of stoligarch and Kremlin insider Gennady Timchenko, is behind the initiative. Reportedly, it was Frank's RRPK which suggested to Vladimir Putin to redistribute crab quotas through auctions in autumn 2017, unnamed market participants told Vedomosti back in 2018. RRPK has entered the market recently and spent a record-high RUB10bn on crab fishing quotas in May 2017. Russia caught a record 5mn tonnes of fish in 2018 — a post Soviet record, Vasily Sokolov, deputy head of the Russian Fishery Agency, told reporters on November 20. The sturgeon catch in Russia in 2018 reached 675,000 tonnes – an all-time record and the biggest catch in over 100 years. The fishing business is flourishing as bne IntelliNews profiled in a cover story “Russia’s fishy business” in February 2018.
95 RUSSIA Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com