Russia has completed the first pollock “A” season – the largest fishing season in the country – with more than 1 million metric tons (MT) of fish harvested.
The Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) said the total catch is 6 percent ahead of the same season last year. Across multiple fisheries, the organization said the all-Russian catch has been 2 percent faster than 2023 and is showing positive dynamics.
That faster rate, Rosrybolovstvo said, is largely thanks to production in the Far East, where the total catch across multiple species has reached 1.32 million MT.
According to the Russian Association of Pollock Harvesters (ADM), fishermen caught 830,000 MT of pollock in the Sea of Okhotsk during the A season, 3.2 percent more than last year. The total catch of pollock throughout the Far Eastern basin, it said, has reached 1.05 million MT – up 8.6 percent over 2023.
“At the height of the fishing season, up to 115 trawl fishing vessels were operating in the fishery, and the daily catch of the expedition exceeded 10,000 MT of pollock,” ADM President Alexey Buglak said in a release.
In the Sea of Okhotsk, fishermen managed to reach 87 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC). Buglak said given favorable fishing conditions, the fishery should be able to reach 98 to 99 percent of the TAC.
“Thus, the pollock catch in the Sea of Okhotsk could be at the level of 950,000 MT,” he said.
According to Rosrybolovstvo, as of 8 April, cold storage facilities in Russia’s Primorsky territory were at 32 percent capacity, containing 36,000 MT of fresh frozen fish products. Approaching the terminal were an additional 40 vessels with 85,800 MT of products – which contained 61,600 MT of pollock.
The ADM said that pollock production has been “stabilized” in terms of which portions are going toward fillets and minced meat due to “uncertainty in foreign markets.” The total output of both products so far has been roughly 60,000 MT.
The country’s production of surimi products, meanwhile, increased by almost 40 percent to 30,000 MT.
Russian companies have committed to producing more processed pollock products, with a focus on surimi. Russian Fishery Company, one of the largest companies fishing pollock in the country, began producing surimi in 2021 with the launch of one of its new modern supertrawlers, the Vladimir Limanov, in December 2020.
The larger pollock catch faces continued sanctions from the European Union and an expanded U.S. ban on Russian seafood products – a ban Buglak said would likely have little effect on the industry.
While the bans may have little effect, in 2023, the value of Russia’s pollock exports dropped 5 percent to USD 1.2 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) due to lower pollock prices.
The export market may be more complicated, according to the ADM, but the domestic market has been positive.
“The dynamics of growth in supplies to the domestic market continues. Based on the results of the first quarter, our fishermen supplied the Russian market with over 100,000 MT of pollock products, or about 26 percent of the catch,” Buglak said. “This is facilitated by the growing demand for pollock among Russians, which is stimulated by the Far Eastern Pollock promotion program that we launched last year.”
During a presentation to Rosrybolovstvo, Buglak credited the agency’s help with pollock promotion programs for the increased consumption of pollock in Russia.
