A subsidiary of the Russian Aquaculture group of companies has received the government’s support for its plant to build a salmon and trout smolt hatchery in the Russian Arctic.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree to support six investment projects in the Russian Arctic, including one for the new Russian Aquaculture hatchery. According to the document, Russia’s federal budget will provide compensation of up to 20 percent of all investment-related expenses.
The facility, to be built by Russian Aquaculture subsidiary Russian Sea - Aquaculture, will have the capacity to produce seven million smolt by 2024, when complete – the same as two Norwegian plants the company purchased in 2017. The plant will be located in Retinskoe, an abandoned village in the Murmansk region on the shores of the Barents Sea.
Russian Aquaculture CEO Ilay Sosnov told Kommersant the plant will cost RUB 4 billion (USD 53.84 million, EUR 44.67 million) to build.
The Russian government is investing in the plant in order to reduce domestic dependence on imported smolt, a priority in line with the country’s federal seafood policy, it said its formal decree announcing the subsidies. On 4 February, three days after the signing of the decree, Russian Vice Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko said at a special legislative session focused on the development of the country’s seafood industry that the sector's dependence on imported smolt is still high, despite the availability of government incentive tools to encourage local smolt production. She backed the decree as a method to encourage the transition.
In 2017, after Russian Aquaculture purchased the Norwegian smolt facilities, Sosnov said the move was made to secure the company’s smolt supply, minimize logistical and biological risks, and to learn from Norway’s smolt-raising expertise and replicate it in Russia.
In recent years, Russia has been investing in initiatives seeking to boost industrial activities in the Russian Arctic outside of the oil and gas sectors. In October 2020, Mishustin, at a meeting with investors, praised the country's progress on that front. The government has created a large free economic zone and introduced a set of incentive measures, including tax incentives, to subsidize the build-out of infrastructure in the region.
Russian Aquaculture is Russia's largest aquaculture company. It farms Atlantic salmon in the Barents Sea and the White Sea and is farming trout in the lakes of the Republic of Karelia in the Russian North.
In 2020, the company’s harvest decreased by eight percent compared to 2019. Sales totaled 15.5 metric tons (MT) of end products, including fish and caviar. Its 2020 revenue totaled RUB 8.4 billion (USD 113 million, EUR 93.8 million).
Photo courtesy of Russian Aquaculture
