At the end of last year the Russian Fishery Company (RFC) added a trawler to its fleet and put it through a refit before sending it to sea for the first time for its new owners.
Pavel Batov will be fishing for RFC in the Sea of Okhotsk and as part of the upgrade, its factory deck was fitted with three new processing lines, boosting its herring fillet production capacity to 28 tonnes per day.
The 106 metre overall, 16 metre beam Pavel Batov was built at the Black Sea Shipyard at Nikolaev in Ukraine in 1987. Its owner prior to being acquired by RFC was Kaliningrad company Atlantrybflot.
According to an RFC spokesman, the company is systematically increasing the proportion of its catches that are processed to increase values, and these value-added products now account for 40% of its Alaska pollock catches, with fillets and fish mince produced at sea ready for retail outlets with only minimal work needed to be done on it ashore.
RFC expects that this year ten our of its fourteen trawlers will be producing herring or pollock fillets, accounting for more than 70% of its catches.
Last year saw RFC also place orders for a fleet of new trawlers, with the lead vessel in the series to be built in Spain and the following six, plus options for two more, to be constructed at a Russian shipyard.
‘As these new vessels go into operation between 202 and 2023, we expect to see the proportion of high-value production at sea rise to 95%,’ RFC’s spokesman said.
