Crimea-based Black Sea Fishery Company (BSFC) awarded The Sea Shipbuilding Plant with a contract for the construction of 10 new trawlers to be deployed in the Black and the Azov seas.
Founded in 2014 – just after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation – BSFC is part of The Sea Resources group of companies, a vertically integrated holding specializing on the whole supply chain of seafood products, from catch to a shelf.
The contract reflects the desire by Russian authorities to boost not only Crimea’s fishing industry, but also the Crimean economy. In May 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s government to design incentive measures to help the peninsula’s shipbuilding companies.
Two months later, in July, he voiced an idea to subsidize 30 percent of expenses for certain fishing vessels constructed at a shipyard in the Crimean peninsula. To qualify for the subsidies, the vessel must be registered under the Russian flag for a period of at least five years.
Soon thereafter, Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksenov said that some big Russian fishing companies began to express interest in the possibility of placing orders at local shipyards.
Since Crimea’s joining Russia in 2014, Russia invested heavily in the economic development of its new region, including the seafood industry, which has good prospects in both wild-catch fisheries and in aquaculture, primarily due to the exceptional qualities of the Black Sea’s waters.
Photo courtesy of S-F/Shutterstock
