Russia to develop aquaculture industry
On January 30, 2010, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev signed Russia’s Food Security Doctrine. The Doctrine is a framework document that outlines Russia’s food self-sufficiency targets and includes a call for more efficient use of aquatic biological resources in Russia, including the development of industrial aquaculture.
A recently released USDA GAIN report says aquaculture in Russia has good potential specifically in the Far East. The Law on aquaculture is still under development. The Federal budget allocated 343.8 million rubles to the artificial reproduction of fish and other food species in 2009, and released 6.7 billion hatchlings. The government program for aquaculture development foresees construction of modern hatcheries for scallops, sea urchins and mussels. Experts believe that it will create more than 80,000 jobs in the Far East. However, the lack of regulation and transparent rules in this field poses a significant obstacle to the sector’s development.
The government is developing a custom tariff regulation policy aimed at supporting local producers. According to officials from the Federal Fishery Agency, this mechanism will halt low grade fish imports from China and Vietnam. According to some sources there are pledges from several fish community groups to restrict imports of farmed salmon from Norway that they say are fed with feed containing numerous additives.
Read the report in full: Russian Federation Fish and Seafood Production and Trade Update (PDF).
