Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries is examining plans for a new fishing terminal in the port of Murrmansk to serve the fishing fleet and for shipping seafood production.
The Agency’s deputy head Vasily Sokolov commented that in 2017 a strategy for the development of fishing industry terminals was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Federal Agency for Fisheries is now exploring options for financing cargo berths with a possible development carried out by the National Fish Resources state enterprise implementing dredging to 13-15 metres and developing quaysides with a 540 metre total length.
‘By refurbishing quaysides and modernising facilities in the port of Murmansk, a new terminal will be created focused on servicing fishing vessels and handling seafood cargo,’ Vasily Sokolov said.
‘The Federal Agency for Fisheries will continue to pursue a policy aimed at the development of ship repair at domestic yards and to see an increase in ship calls at Russian ports.’
He commented that ship repair capacity needs to be increased to handle the requirements of the existing trawler fleet, as well as to build new tonnage. Approximately 190 mostly medium-sized fishing vessels operate in the northern region, with an average age of 28 years.
In addition to the agreements have already secured in 2017 and 2018 for investment quotas for new vessels and shore-based processing plants, in January this year applications were received for nine more new vessels for the Far East and two for the northern region, plus development is in progress towards building three new research vessels.
In 2018 the Russian northern region accounted for 11.50% of the overall Russian catch, 576,600 tonnes, a 1% increase over the previous year, while the overall catch increased by 5% to 5,030,000 tonnes.
