Russia’s salmon sector will get a RUB 15 billion (USD 241.3 million, EUR 217.6 million) government investment through 2030, according to a recently approved Fishery Industry Development Strategy.
The state funding will go towards the construction of processing plants and smolt production facilities, and will be funded via both the federal and regional governments. It will be supplemented by private investment, according to the strategy. Of the total, RUB 3 billion (USD 48.3 million, EUR 43.5 million) will go toward production of juvenile sockeye, chum, and coho salmon for aquaculture, and RUB 12 billion (USD 193 million, EUR 174 million) will be dedicated to facilities with the collective goal of producing 40 million metric tons (MT) of smolt a year. Additional funds will be used to boost the production of salmon aquafeed, with the aim of producing up to 330,000 MT annually.
The strategy document sets the goal of producing a minimum 100,000 MT of farm-grown salmon per year.
The government is sure the investment will pay for itself due to high demand for salmon and the possibility for the national industry to replace imports. In 2018, 350,000 MT of salmon was consumed in Russia, with 90,000 MT of that coming from imports. That import volume was much lower than in 2014, when it reached 130,000 MT. The decrease was caused by the ban on imported food from some countries as part of Russia’s response to Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea.
The Russian government’s strategy document also labels salmon as a promising export product. Demand from China for salmon will exceed one million MT annually by 2030, and Russian producers can be competitive in the Chinese market, according to the document.
In 2018, Russian fisheries caught 676,000 MT of salmon in the wild, and 500,000 MT this year. The Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) predicted next year’s salmon catch total will return to the levels of the early 2000s, when the annual catch averaged 280,000 MT from 2002 to 2010.
