Russian crab fishing companies are increasingly targeting the markets of the Middle East and Eastern Asia to compensate for being blocked out of the U.S. and European Union after they levied sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Crab is one of Russia’s most-valuable seafood exports. Accounting for less than 5 percent of Russia's seafood exports by volume, crab brought in nearly 43 percent of Russia’s seafood export value in 2021, according to Agroexport, the state-run center of agricultural exports.
Russia annually catches around 95,000 metric tons (MT) of crab, and 75 to 80 percent of that harvest is exported, as domestic demand for crab is modest.
Russia's top crab markets in 2021 were South Korea, followed by the Netherlands, China, Japan, and Norway. Live and chilled crab from Russia were primarily sent to Asian countries, while frozen went to the U.S. and E.U.
But after an initial shock, Russia's crab exporters appear to have gotten back on track. Companies quickly retargeted sales to new markets, while also trying to sell more crab to tried-and-true markets in Asia.
Antey, a top crab company operating in the Northern Basin, caught 14,000 MT of crab in 2021, but shifted most of its sales to Asia. It has built out a sophisticated logistics scheme to get live crab –the preferred format in Asia – from Russia's remote northern seas to China and South Korea.
Antey is currently delivering crab from the port of Murmansk to Russia’s capital, Moscow, by truck before shipping it on to Asia by plane. Antey has also been testing use of the Northern Sea Passage, a trans-Arctic marine route connecting Russia's north with its eastern regions and Asia.
Its supply chain will soon include a facility the company has nicknamed the “crab hotel” near Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, where the crab will await transport in giant reservoirs.
Russian Crab, which has an annual quota of 11,760 MT and a 17 percent share of Russia’s crab exports, has focused its efforts on expanding sales in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where it has presented its products at major trade exhibitions including Saudi-Agriculture 2022.
“We saw a serious intention of our Middle Eastern partners to cooperate and hope this intention will be turned into contracts,” Russian Crab CEO Alexander Sapozhnikov said in a company release. “There are grounds for this as the local seafood market is big and set to grow.”
Russian Crab Deputy CEO Yulia Yurova, in an online column, said that the last year has shown a shift to Eastern markets is “a solvable task.” She pointed to statistics from the Russian Customs Service to highlight her point: From January through October 2022, China imported 2,565 MT of Russian crab, more than double the amount imported for the entire year of 2020 and 2021. Russia's crab exports to Japan increased as well, rising 31 percent year-on-year to 1,300 MT through August 2022.
China is a fast-growing market, and rising living standards there could drive demand for Russian crab even further, Yurova said. Russian Crab has launched a program to promote boiled and frozen crab to Chinese consumers, promising it can can deliver the same eating experience and nutritional benefits as live crab.
The Russian state is also planning to help Russian crabbers shift to new markets The government has apparently resolved some of the problems impeding trade through Kraskino, the land border crossing between China and Russia, through which the majority of the live crab trade travels.
Russian authorities moved in 2020 to upgrade the crossing’s infrastructure, and the governments of both countries have expanded their hours of operation at the border. According to various Russian media sources, the smaller queues have been a boon for live crab traders, reducing losses caused by the previously long queues of trucks that previously piled up – particularly on the Russian side of the border.
Photo courtesy of Antey Group
