Dmitriy Medvedev, Chairman of the Russian Government held a business meeting with Ilya Shestakov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia and Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery.
The topic of the discussion was the fishery industry performance results in 2017 and its development prospects.
“The catching of fish by Russian fishermen will reach 5 mln tonnes this year, and the growth will be 1.6% versus 2017”, said Ilya Shestakov emphasizing the positive momentum of all main sectors of the industry.
He also said that the commercial aquaculture production has showed a rapid growth as a result of the adoption of the Aquaculture Law effective since 2014. Since then, more than 150,000 hectares have been formed and distributed for new fish breeding areas. Karelia, Krasnodar Krai and Crimea are one of the leaders in that area. The fisheries of Western Siberia and the fish farms of Primorsky Krai also show a dynamic growth.
Ilya Shestakov said that the whole industry was on the rise. The gross turnover growth of the fishery industry was 7% in 2017.
“Among other things, it is related to the higher involvement of fishermen in processing, and fillet and fish flour production growth. The dynamics are not so positive yet in terms of the processed product export, but we are gradually increasing the production of processed products”, explained Ilya Shestakov and also added that by 2016, the industry contribution to the gross domestic product has increased by 5% which is almost 230 bln rubles.
The Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery said that the investment quota mechanism has been aimed at modifying the production structure by building new sophisticated ships with onboard processing. “This will allow us to change the structure of fish product delivery to the domestic and foreign markets”, explained Ilya Shestakov.
In addition, he presented the results of the first bid campaign for investment quota allocation created by the Federal Agency for Fishery last year. A special committee selected 56 applications from 68 submitted applications. By using the investment quota mechanism, the Russian shipbuilding yards will build 33 vessels and 23 coastal processing plants, including large vessels for the Russian Far East (6 projects), and 27 medium and small vessels for the Northern Basin.
The Russian shipbuilding yards have already signed contracts for vessel building, including Vyborg Shipyard, “Admiralteyskie Verfi”, “Yantar” plant. Currently, seven vessels are being built. The investment volume of the selected projects, estimated at 140 bln rubles, will be provided in the next five years.
“This program has to be brought to a successful end, i.e. the actual building and commissioning of the ships. Fishermen are waiting for those vessels. I hope that this program becomes a great success”, said Dmitriy Medvedev at the end of the meeting.
Source: www.fishretail.ru