Vladivostok, Russia-based Russian Fishery Company (RFC) has reported higher value-added pollock production in Q1 2021.
RFC said it produced 15 percent more frozen-at-sea pollock fillets and mince compared to Q1 2020 and said its Primorye pollock factory has expanded its production volume.
“The RFC took a course towards deepening processing in 2014, when some of the company's vessels were modernized and equipped with processing factories,” RFC General Director Viktor Litvinenko said in a press release.
Despite being shut out of the Chinese market due to that country’s increased inspection controls in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, RFC has maintained production that “fully fulfills its obligations to supply to various regions of the world.” It said it had upped shipments to the domestic market in Russia by 25 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2021. In particular, the Primorye plant including increased its value-added pollock production, particularly of pollock loins and portioned fillets, which it primarily sold to retail chains in Russia’s Far East, including the Samberi Far East retail network. The plant now has a daily production capacity of 155 metric tons, with an additional 20 MT of daily fish oil and fishmeal production.
“Thanks to deep processing at sea, we can flexibly respond to market challenges – in particular, those related to the restriction of access to the Chinese market, which the industry is facing today,” Litvinenko said. “The commissioning of new supertrawlers, the first of which has already been received by the company, will make it possible to make a breakthrough in this direction – to process up to 100% of catches in fillets, mince, and surimi at sea.”
RFC is in the process of building 11 new supertrawlers at a cost of RUB 65 billion (USD 882 million, EUR 749 million). It has also expanded its land-based pollock production in an effort to bring more processing capacity back to Russia from China, according to RFC Primorye Plant Director Mikhail Degtyarenko.
“Moving away from raw material exports is not only a solution to today's problem related to the closure of Chinese ports for fish products. Increasing the export of deep-processed goods is a state priority,” he said. “The development of its own deep processing allows RFC to provide direct deliveries of the final product and guarantee its high quality. In particular, the standard of our plant excludes the use of moisture-retaining and other chemical components.”
In Q1, RFC announced a contract to supply pollock fillets and herring to a client in Japan.
Photo courtesy of Russian Fishery Company
