As per the information released by the Russian government there is a special package of measures going to be implemented which is aimed at stabilizing prices in the domestic fish market, and creating conditions to reduce fish imports from abroad. The government has planned to reduce the prices of salmon and pollock at the same time.
According to the government sources they plan to do this through a series of buying interventions in the market, focusing on salmon and pollock to prevent price fluctuations and to step up the struggle with poaching. Andrei Krayny, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo), said that in the first quarter of the current year, imports of fish to Russia decreased by 32 percent.
The government also wanted to raise the share of domestic fish in the market to 80 percent by 2013-2014, with the share of imports no more than 20 percent. Record shows that from 2008 fish capture in Russia has significantly increased, and by the end of 2010 hit a record figure of 4.3 million tons, and will likely increase again this year as well.
As part of the projected measures, Rosrybolovstvo also plans to start purchasing interventions in the seafood market, which should help to prevent “unjustified rise in consumer prices for fish”. Initially government wants to purchase salmon and pollock. This will allow government sales to reduce prices for end consumers for these types of fish by 15 percent. However, according to some experts, the implementation of this initiative has risks particularly the inability of companies selected for interventions by the state to meet their obligations.
Krayny comments that the mian intention is to close the whole market and for this they have already signed the relevant agreements with the U.S. and Canada, as well as South Korea for cooperation in the field of combating poaching. Similar agreements might be also signed with Japan and China in the near future.
