Russia to build new salmon feed mills to reduce imports

The government aims to subsidize capital costs for building feed factories after supplies from Western countries were cut off following the invasion of Ukraine.

Photo source: Rosrybolovstvo.

April 21, 2022

The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo) unveiled plans for the construction of aquafeed mills specialized in salmon feeds.

The agency stated that supplies from Denmark have stopped, accounting for 45% of the Russian high-quality salmon feed demand. However, feed supplies from Norway, which account for 51%, are still being delivered. “Partners from Norway can meet the 70% of feed demand, but this does not cancel the task of replacing the import of salmon feed,” the agency said.

The government aims to subsidize capital costs for the construction of feed mills. Currently, there are three projects ready to begin production of salmon feeds in Russia in late 2022 or early 2023.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, BioMar Group shut down all trade activities with Russia and Skretting and Nutreco decided not to undertake new investments, new projects and new exports to Russia for the time being.

According to Rosrybolovstvo, Russia imported salmon feed from Norway, Denmark and Finland accounting 170,000 tons in 2021. The volume of domestic feed production is 20,000 tons.

In Russia, fish feed is produced by Limkorm LLC (Belgorod region), NPK Dalkorm LLC (Primorsky territory), Melkombinat OJSC (Tver region), Fish Feed JSC and BIFF LLC (Astrakhan region), Karelian fish plants - Korma (Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk) and NPK "AQUATEH" (Novosibirsk region). There are also a number of smaller organizations. In addition, a new aquafeed mill in Belarus by CJSC Belarusian National Biotechnological Corporation has now been put into operation, which can significantly saturate the Russian market, according to Rosrybolovstvo.