Vladivostok, Russia-based Russian Crab Company, one of Russia’s leading crab exporters, doubled its shipments to China in the first quarter of 2021.
In Q1 2021, the Russian Crab Co. exported 835 metric tons (MT) of live opilio snow crab, blue king crab, and horsehair crab to China, up from 415 MT shipped in the same period last year.
The data suggests that Russian Crab remains the leader crab harvesting companies in Russia’s Far East in the supply of live crab to China. According to the company, its harvest in the first quarter of this year rose 19 percent year-on-year to 2,400 MT. China has a 21 percent share of the crab catch in Russia’s Far East Basin, according to the firm, which focuses its catch on the Primorskiy, West Kamchatka, and West Bering Sea, in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.
For 2020, Russian Crab Company exported 3,100 MT to China, a doubling of its 2019 sales in China. And backed by government fiscal stimulus spending, China recently announced an 18 percent growth in its GDP for the first quarter of 2021, showing its economy is on the rebound after a year of COVID-19-related lockdowns.
Nonetheless, Russian Crab Company has hinted it is looking to hedge its dependence on China’s market, which has been locked up to many exporters as Chinese Customs cracks down on seafood it suspects of carrying COVID-19. Earlier this month, the company became a member of Russian-China Business Council (RCBC) in an effort to bolster its logistics capabilities in China.
“In March, the first shipment of a blue king crab was organized to the European Union,” Russian Crab Company said in a statement. “In addition, a pilot project for the supply of king crab to the domestic market has been started.”
Finding new markets will be important to the Russian Crab Company with its huge investment in new vessels, driven by mandates from the Russian government in exchange for expanded fishing quota. The firm is building three new processor-trawlers to catch, cook, and freeze crabs largely for the Japanese and US markets. With 20 fishing vessels, the Russian Crab Company claims to be the largest crab-harvesting company in Russia. Last year, the firm accounted for 22 percent of live Russian crab shipments to China – the largest share of any firm.
Photo courtesy of Onego Shipyard
