RUSSIA PLANS RECORD FISH PRODUCTION BY 2030

Russia plans record fish production by 2030. The planned volume of fish catch in Russia by 2030 will be 6 million tons; last year it exceeded 5.3 million, which is already a record for the last 30 years, according to the head of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Ilya Shestakov, speaking recently at the International Exhibition and Forum “Russia”.

“Our main goal is to reach a catch volume of about 6 million tons by 2030. Science should help us here by providing new fishing areas. And of course, a new fleet that will allow this volume to be caught,” said Ilya Shestakov.

In addition, by 2030, according to the development strategy, the structure of fish production will also change: the share of deep processing of catches in the total volume should increase to 50%. At the same time, the head of Federal Fisheries Agency noted that in 2023 this figure was 32%, which is almost twice as much as ten years ago (2014 – 10-15%). This trend is facilitated by large-scale reform of the industry – modernisation of the fleet and processing.

A programme of investment quotas is being implemented in Russia; thanks to the implementation of its two stages, 150 new vessels (fishing and crab catchers) and 36 processing plants will be built in the country. As part of the first stage, 105 vessels are being built, 22 of them have already been handed over to fishermen and are fishing. 25 new coastal fish processing plants are operating. As part of the second stage of the reform, another 46 ships and 11 fish processing plants will be built. In addition to the fishing fleet, the renovation of transport and logistics infrastructure will begin. It is planned to build refrigerated transport vessels to deliver high-quality products from fishing areas to the shore, as well as to create six new logistics complexes.

“These are large infrastructure facilities with refrigeration capacities of 25–50 thousand tons of storage. In fact, we will completely resolve the issue related to both storage and logistics to transshipment points,” said Ilya Shestakov.

In 2023, production will be a record for the last 30 years – 5.3 million tons. At the same time, Ilya Shestakov explained that the data is operational and, according to updated data, the catch will exceed 5.3 million.

Commercial aquaculture has also shown good results over the past 10 years: the figure has more than doubled to 402 thousand tons, including a significant increase in salmon production.

In 2023, the total turnover of fishing and fish processing organisations exceeded 1 trillion rubles for the first time in history (+17% by 2022); in 2014, this figure was only 170 billion rubles. As a result, the total amount of taxes and social contributions in 2023 amounted to 112 billion rubles.

“This makes it possible to develop social infrastructure, the infrastructure of fishing villages, as Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about in his Address to the Federal Assembly. I think that the fishing industry will be one of the drivers of economic development in the future,” concluded Ilya Shestakov.

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