The Russian government has announced the winners in the first round of applications allowing companies building new vessels or seafood processing plants domestically to acquire additional fishing quota.
The commission reviewed 68 applications which were submitted from 6 June to 7 December 2017, approving 56 of them and dismissing an addition dozen.
The new rules, approved by a Russian interdepartmental commission, awarded additional quota for the construction of up to 33 fishing ships and 23 fish processing plants within the next five years. The rules stipulate that companies building a new vessel at a Russian shipyard can apply for up to 15 percent more quota for a certain species, while processing plants are worth five percent more quota.
Out of 33 approved ships, six are large-range ones of more than 100 meters in length, while 27 are medium- and small-sized vessels. All the ships are projected to be built between 2019 and 2023. Of the newly-built vessels, 24 will go into operation in the northern regions of Russia, with the remaining nine in the Far East.
Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries estimates the vessel approvals will lead to new investment of RUB 110 billion (USD 1.9 billion, EUR 1.5 billion). The agency’s deputy chief, Pyotr Savchuk, noted that only one large-range ship was built for exploitation in the Russian Far East over the last decade, and that only six vessels entered service throughout Russia between 2013 and 2016, with five of them built by foreign shipyards.
All ships under the investment quotas will be built at shipyards in St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Leningrad, and Kaliningrad regions, Savchuk said.
Of the 23 applications approved for establishing new processing facilities, the total amount of investment is estimated to be RUB 30 billion (USD 524 million, EUR 426 million), Savchuk said.
With the winners of the program’s first round announced, the second application period for the so-called “investment quotas” began on 1 March 2018 and will remain open through June 2018. The quotas will be allocated for financing the buildup of a fleet of about 20 small- and medium-sized ships for coastal fishing of bottom-dwelling species. Quotas for pollock and herring that were not claimed during the first campaign will be added to the second campaign, which could mean the potential construction of five to six additional trawlers.
