The Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament has passed a bill making it easier for fish farmers to rent land sites adjacent to their farms without conducting additional auctions.
Russia is hoping to ramp up its aquaculture production, with a goal of producing as much as 700,000 metric tons (MT) of farmed fish annually by 2030, up from 240,000 MT in 2018.
However, nearly 30 percent of sites auctioned for aquaculture are of limited capacity. Their owners must go through additional auctions to be able to rent land around or near their waters to accommodate equipment and feed storage, Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Head Ilya Shestakov said at a session of the Russian State Duma (the Lower Parliament Chamber) when presenting the bill. The bureaucratic obstacles take up aquaculture businesses’ time and money, Shestakov said.
The legislature approved the bill in a first reading unanimously, which means the draft of the law will hardly face any severe confrontation further down the legislative process.
After the bill becomes law, the government is to establish ground rules for the conclusion of rental agreements of this type. Once the rules go into effect, to rent a state- or municipality-owned land site, aqua-farmers will just have to sign a rent agreement with local authorities, making the process much easier, Shestakov said.
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