The Russian Crab Company has posted positive annual operational results for 2020, and announced it has begun the construction of a crab processing vessel even as it held a keel-laying ceremony for the third new crab harvesting vessel in its fleet.
The Russian Crab Company Group is the largest catcher of crab in Russia, and is owned by the Russian Fishery Company. The company won a large portion of the country’s crab quotas in auctions held in 2019, emerging as a new “crab king” in the country.
The purchase of quotas – which reportedly cost the company RUB 18.2 billion (USD 240 million, EUR 200 million) – has apparently paid off, with the company reporting it utilized 99.1 percent of its allocated quota. Fishing red, blue, and brown king crab; opilio snow crab; and horsehair crab in the Okhotsk Sea, Bering Sea, and the Sea of Japan, the company caught 13,020 metric tons of crab – 19 percent of the regional crab catch.
“Last year, the Russian Crab Company started quotas utilization acquired at the 2019 auction. Volumes of extraction increased 5 times - from 2,500 tons to 13,000 tons,” General Director Russian Crab Company General Director Alexander Sapozhnikov said in a press release. “As a result, Russian Crab Company successfully mastered the largest package of crab quotas in the Far Eastern basin.”
The increased volumes allowed the company to significantly increase its exports. The company reported that its export volume jumped 3.5 times. Of those increased exports, 22.7 percent of the total went to China, and 15.5 percent went to South Korea. Both of those totals represented significant increases in exports to each country: Exports to China increased by 10.5 percent and South Korea by 10.6 percent.
“Volume of sales to Japan also showed significant growth, despite the fact that quarantine restrictions seriously reduced the activity of importers,” the company said.
Following the quota auction wins in 2019, the Russian Crab Company announced it would be building 10 new modern crab vessels. On 2 February, the company held a keel-laying ceremony for the third of seven vessels ordered from Omega Shipbuilding, and developed by Damen Engineering Company.
The company’s technical director, during a speech at the ceremony, said that the vessels represent a step forward for the crab industry in Russia, as the vessels are purpose-built for crab fishing.
Just days before the keel-laying ceremony, the company also announced that it has begun the steel-cutting for a crab-processing vessel. According to a company release, “Vessel 5712P” will be the first of three processing vessels to be constructed over the next three years.
“New vessels are designed for crab harvesting and crab processing into cooked-frozen products and will operate in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea,” the company said.
The new vessels, according to the Russian Crab Company, will have twice the production of old vessels, more modern materials, and better working quarters for crew.
“The Russian Crab Company implements the Crab harvesting Fleet construction program within the framework of investment obligations stipulated by the auction distribution of quotas for the production of commercial crab,” the company said. “The new fleet of will comprise 10 vessels, seven of which will be built by JSC Onego Shipyard. The keels of the lead vessel and first vessel in series were laid in June and December 2020.”
Photo courtesy of the Russian Crab Company
