Increased quotas for king crab in Russia’s Far East has allowed a leading Russian fishing firm to increase its exports to China by 80 percent in the first three quarters of 2020.
The Russian Crab Company’s exported 65 percent of its live crab sales to China in the first nine months of 2020, a company spokesperson told SeafoodSource.
The impact of coronavirus on Chinese demand appears to have been eased by a bumper October holiday season, which saw the bulk of Chinese tourists stay at home. October is a key sales season in China for Russian crab, with online retailer JD.com offering a same-day delivery in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai for 1.1-kilogram live crabs retailing at CNY 828 (USD 124.20, EUR 107.64).
Extra quotas secured by the Russian Crab Company Group for Kamchatka king crab has enabled it to increase its shipments of live crab to China. Compared to 2019, the volume of the firm’s catch increased by 80 percent, with king crab accounting for a significant share of importers' purchases.
According to the company's Q3 financial report, demand and prices for premium Russian seafood have significantly recovered in many foreign markets. In the second half of the year, importers from Japan resumed active purchases of boiled and frozen products, with exports of those products now accounting for 16 percent of the company's total catch volume.
With 80 percent of its quota utilized, the company's catch in the first nine months amounted to 10,435 tons of crab, or 20 percent of the total regional crab catch. The firm has quotas for 21 percent of the total volume of king crab catch permitted within the region.
Russian Crab Group has annual quotas for more than 13,000 tons of crab in the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan, and has catch licenses good until 2035. The company has ordered 10 new vessels to supplement its current fleet of 19 crab-catching vessels.
Photo courtesy of Antey Group
