The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries announced the results of the third stage of the quota-for-investment program, designed to encourage Russian companies upgrade their fleets and construct more processing facilities to produce value-added products.
In 2016, the Russian government launched an incentive program to help the Russian fishing industry expand its capacity and renew the aging national fishing fleet. In 2017, the first round of an investment program was launched that allowed companies to apply for additional quotas for a number of species allocated in exchange for promises to build new vessels at Russian shipyards or to construct new onshore processing plants. Upon fulfillment of the obligations, a fishery is entitled to an additional 20 percent of a quota for 15 years.
In 2017-2018, two additional rounds of the program were conducted, resulting in the planned construction of 33 new vessels worth RUB 110 billion (USD 1.74 billion, EUR 1.56 billion) and the construction of 22 onshore processing facilities worth RUB 22 billion (USD 347.8 million, EUR 312 million).
The third campaign took place for quotas for which there was more demand than supply during the first two stages. A Dutch auction was established to distribute quotas for Pacific herring, pollock, cod, and haddock. The results of the auction, revealed recently, show the government collected promises to build 10 new vessels and four new processing facilities, all processing haddock and cod. Two plants will be of large capacity, one of medium capacity, and one of small capacity.
Of the new vessels, one will be a 55-meter long-liner, to be constructed in the Northern fishery basin. The remaining nine trawlers will fish pollock and herring and will be deployed in the Far East fishery basin. Five trawlers will be 105 meters long, while the other four will be medium-sized, each between 85 to 95 meters in length. The total amount of the investment will be RUB 56 billion (USD 885 million, EUR 794.6 million), the Russian Fishery Agency said in a statement, without parsing the sum between the processing plants and the new vessels.
One of the plants and four trawlers will be built by the Russian Fishery Company, according to an announcement from the firm. The company's quota for pollock and herring will increase by more than 80,000 metric tons (MT) when the vessels are commissioned. Upon the commission of the plant, its catch quota for cod and haddock will increase by an additional 1,000 MT, RFC said in a statement. Each of the vessels is designed to catch and process more than 50,000 MT annually. The plant’s capacity will be at least 25 MT of seafood per day.
In March 2019, the fourth application campaign has started, this time for quotas for bottom-dwelling fish.
Photo courtesy of Russian Fishery Company
