A plant producing freshly frozen cod fillet, liver, and caviar – as well as halibut, grenadier, flounder, and navaga – was recently completed in the town of Severo-Kurilsk, located on Paramushir Island in the Sakhalin region, in Russia’s Far East.
Owned by Alaid and built within the investment quota program, the daily capacity of the plant is estimated at 150 metric tons (MT). The plant has been outfitted with equipment from Baader and Oestergaard A/S. The company will also produce fish oil and fishmeal and has the capability to scale up its processing capacity if demand grows.
According to the Sakhalin region’s administration, construction on the plant started in 2018, spurred by the investment quota program, an incentive program launched by the Russian government a few years ago to spur Russian investors to increase the country's seafood processing capacity. Under the program, additional quotas are awarded in exchange for investments into processing plants or Russian-built fishing vessels. The quotas are allocated upon the completion of the construction, provided the investor fulfilled its obligations.
Alaid, which operates four fishing trawlers in the Far East, also took part in another part of the program devoted to building a new fishing vessel, and has another trawler now under construction.
In the long-term, Alaid said it hopes to create a fishery cluster on the Kuril Islands, according to Leonid Petukhov, the head of the state-funded Far Eastern Investment Agency. The cluster will focus on deep-processed seafood with high added value, Petukhov said.
Photo courtesy of Belikova Oksana/Shutterstock
