MURMANSK. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Russia's fishing companies must sell all their export product through fish exchanges beginning January 1, 2009, State Fisheries Committee head Andrei Krainy said.
The exchanges will begin test operation in March-April, Krainy said.
"The principle of a fish exchange is not our invention, we are studying foreign experience, but the actual implementation will be ours, Krainy told the press in Murmansk on Friday.
Companies supplying product to Russia will have the choice of selling through the exchanges or under direct contracts with importers.
Not so domestic exporters. "That will make it possible to avoid the collusion that often occurs. There have been cases where crabs are exported abroad for the price of a few cans of sprats, but the buyer is a company affiliated with the seller," Krainy said.
"The very principle of the fish exchange excludes the possibility of knowing who the buyer is," he said.
Major fishing companies in the regions where the exchanges are established - Murmansk, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Vladivostok and Kaliningrad - have the opportunity to be co-founders of the exchanges, he added.
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