Aquaculture firms in Russia have adapted to Western sanctions that forced a realignment of their supply chains.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it experienced an exodus of key aquafeed manufacturers that previously supplied the bulk of Russia's aquafeed demand.
According to Russia's National Feed Union Executive Director Sergey Mikhnyuk, Russia’s annual aquafeed consumption is 250,000 metric tons (MT). Of that total, 120,000 to 130,000 MT is for cyprinids (carp) and is supplied by Russian producers. The remaining volume is mostly for salmonids, char, and sturgeon and is primarily imported. Before the war, 95 percent of that feed was coming from three major providers: Denmar-based BioMar, Finland-based Raisio, and Norway-based Skretting, he told Sfera FM magazine.
Yet despite an initial shock caused by the pullback of a number of Europe-based aquafeed suppliers, aquaculture producers in Russia have reported their fears of shortages haven't yet materialized. Elena Moyseeva, the head of Fishlab, a trout-farming firm, told Sfera FM that the volumes of feed the company used, previously supplied by one of the three major companies, were replaced by feed provided by a number of different companies, including Aller, Alltech Coppens, Russia-based Limkorn, Dibaq, LeGouessant, Veronessi, Armenia-based ModusGranum, Aquasoya, and others. Her company primarily buys Noreg premium feed, which is produced in Belarus using Norwegian technologies.
Vladimir Labinov, the agriculture and fishery minister of the Republic of Karelia, told media agency TASS that farmers in the region are substituting European feed with products from Iran, Turkey, and Belarus. Karelia, located in the northwest of Russia, produces 70 percent of Russian-farmed char.
Andrey Snapkov, the director of sturgeon-farming firm Aquafarm Sablinskaya, said that before and after the start of the war, the company has used and continues to use products made by Alltech Coppens. In the early days of the war, prices increased, he said, but they have since normalized.
“It’s just a bit more than it had been before 24 February,” he said. “So we go on buying high-quality European feed and don’t suffer from shortages.”
But Mikhnyuk said Russia's aquafeed supply chain remains tenuous. During the first eight months of 2022, Russian aquafarmers have only imported 70,000 MT of feed, according to Mikhnyuk. If that dynamic continues, imports will only amount to 100,000 MT, leading to a deficit of 20,000 to 30,000 MT.
“We have to take this seriously,” Mikhnyuk said.
Concern over a lack of aquaculture feed is shared by the Account Chamber, a financial watchdog of the Russian government. Sergey Mamedov, an auditor with the chamber, said during a session of the Federation Council – the upper chamber of Russian parliament – that he sees no effective moves by the government to tackle the shortage.
“We continue to buy aquafeed as well as spat abroad,” he told local media.
Mamedov called on the Russian government to design a special state program to boost domestic seafood production to replace imports.
The government enacted a decree in mid-September that subsidizes 20 percent of the cost of either building a new aquafeed plant or modernizing an existing one, according to Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev. Within a five-year period, nine plants are expected to come online with a total yearly output that it supposed to reach 220,000 MT, and by 2030, the country will be able to cover all of its aquafeed needs, Patrushev said.
That production is still years away from commercializaiton, however. For now, Russian aquafarmers are still seeking alternative sources of aquafeed to make up the gap that emerged after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in it being cut off from trade with much of the rest of the world. Russia’s aquaculture output was 350,000 MT in 2021, and it is set to rise by up to five percent in 2022 – driving the demand for feed.
Photo courtesy of Parilov/Shutterstock
