Almost a year after its first crab-fishing auctions took place in late 2019, the Russian government has finally managed to sell the last few lots that attracted no previous interest from bidders.
Four of six lots that remained unsold until this month finally received a bidder, though the remaining two lots have still not attracted any interest, an issue that is becoming a headache for authorities.
A movement toward crab quota reform in Russia saw half the crab quotas being sold through auctions in December 2019, with winning bidders required to invest in building crab vessels in Russia.
Six lots from the first round of the auctions didn’t attract any interest from buyers. These were deep-water species: triangle tanner crab (Chionoecetes angulatus) in the Sea of Okhotsk, and red snow crab (Chionoecetes japonicus) in the Sea of Japan (the Eastern Sea). Each of the two lots was offered at a starting bid of RUB 636.6 million (USD 8.2 million, EUR 7 million), which included the right to catch 713 metric tons (MT) of triangle tanner crab and 716 MT of red snow crab.
Industry players complained that fishing these species is a complicated process with questionable economic returns. And the price was high - entering a winning bid required a commitment to build a new crab-fishing vessel at a Russian shipyard.
The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries, which has overseen the auctions, made three subsequent attempts to sell the lots, all unsuccessful.
Finally, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued an order dropping the asking price for the first lot by 2.8 times in comparison with the starting price a year ago, and by 2.4 times for triangle tanner crab.
The lowering of the price brought positive results, though on a limited scale. One bidder did emerge to apply for four lots. The auction was declared void, so all four lots were sold to the only bidder for the new initial price of RUB 290 million (USD 3.8 million, EUR 3.2 million) for each lot, totaling nearly RUB 1.2 billion (USD 15.5 million, EUR 13.2 million).
The winner was Vladivostok-based fishery Tefida. It can start fishing its new lots in 2021.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
