Russia may cease to import Norwegian salmon due to increasing volumes of Russia’s own fish producers, writes RBC. Two large companies – Russkoye More and Russky Losos – will become locomotives in this sector.Russia is currently at the outset of aquaculture. In 2012, volumes of fish farming in Russia were somewhat 150.000 tons. Of that, only about 20.000 tons was salmon.
For Russia, Norway is today the biggest exporter of chilled salmon. According to director of Russkoye More Dmitry Dangauer, 150.000 out of 200.000 tons of chilled salmon imported into Russia in 2012 came from Norway.
Dangauer claims his company may potentially grow some 70.000 tons of salmon and trout. His mid-term plans are modest though. According to the company’s approved agenda for 2018-2020, Russkoye More will reach volumes of up to 30.000 tons. In this respect, Russkoye More counts mostly on their fish cages located in the Murmansk region.
In Murmansk, Russkoye More settled down and installed its fish farm back in 2012. First salmon will be ‘harvested’ in May 2014. This year, the company installed another farm and is planning to install two more in 2014. All in all, Russkoye More was licensed to operate in 11 blocks on the Barents Sea coast. Apart from salmon farming in Murmansk, Russkoye More is also engaged in trout farming with production facilities in Karelia and the White Sea.
"Our fish is no worse than Norwegian in terms of quality, " says Dmitry Dangauer, "while according to some parameters, like logistic execution for example, we are ahead."
Baltiysky Bereg sounds more ambitious. Its daughter company Russky Losos has been in Murmansk since 2009. This year, the company is to produce 20.000 tons of salmon, and after a few more farms are installed, the production output will reach 80-100.000 tons of fish by 2018.
Simple maths shows if the two achieve what they have planned, Russian fish will oust Norwegian imports from the market in 5-7 years, counts RBC.
Russkoye More and Russky Losos also broach the idea of opening hatcheries in the Murmansk region.
Russia defined its aquaculture legislation in July 2013. The law is yet to come into force in 2014.
