The Russian seafood association, country officials, and fishing companies are reporting a difficult 2024 as overall seafood exports have dropped in volume and value.
According to a report by Russia’s central bank, exports of seafood have fallen 7 percent by volume and 13 percent by value so far this year. Those drops pose a problem, as according to Fishery Shipowners Association (FSA) President Alexey Osintsev, exports make up nearly 70 percent of the seafood industry’s revenue.
"Accordingly, any changes in the cost of exports affect the financial and economic situation of the industry and enterprises and affect the final indicators of fishermen," Osintsev said during a panel at Russia’s Fishery Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, fishnews reported.
One of the issues, according to the panel, is how the government is handling export customs duties on some types of fish products. Pollock fillets and Iwashi sardines are currently subject to export duties, but according to Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) Deputy Head Andrei Yakovlev, a proposal to remove those duties is awaiting the signature of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia implemented new duties on exports, including seafood, starting 1 October 2023 through the end of 2024, tying the tariff rate to the exchange rate between the Russian ruble and the U.S. dollar. As the ruble loses value compared to the U.S. dollar, the tariff rate increases, reaching as high as 7 percent.
Yakovlev said Rosrybolovstvo will work to exclude deeply processed products from the tariffs after 2024, fishnews reported, but it made no mention of other products impacted by the tariffs.
The Russian Fishery Forum panel also said that export certificates that are required to ship seafood to foreign markets, including certificates of origin, also pose a problem. Russia’s push to expand its exports to new areas is running into the issue that different countries require different documentation, Yakolev said.
On top of that, Russia requires exporters to have 15 different documents, an issue that Yakolev said will be partially solved as the country transitions to a digital platform for exporting seafood.
Regardless of export destination, costs are increasing for the seafood industry, Pollock Fishermen Association President Alexey Buglak said during the panel. Margins have grown worse, and the export duties are making those margins even worse.
The profitability of the industry’s exports to China – it’s most important trading partner – is also declining, a presentation by China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) at the forum showed. Fishnews reported that CAPPMA President Xue Guang Wang said so far this year, China has imported 695,000 metric tons (MT) of Russian fish and seafood, an increase of 1 percent. However, the value has dropped to USD 1.52 billion (EUR 1.37 billion) – a drop of 7.4 percent.
Those drops come from a few key species, Wang said. China imported 78,000 MT of Russian salmon from January to June 2024 – an increase of 9.6 percent compared to the same period of 2023 – but the value of those exports dropped 12 percent.
Russian exports of pollock to China also increased by volume, reaching 365,700 MT from January to June – an increase of 1.8 percent. However, the value only totaled USD 376 million (EUR 338 million), a decrease of 17.4 percent. Part of that is due to lower prices; the import price of a ton of pollock was USD 1,027 (EUR 924) on average, a drop of 18.8 percent compared to 2023’s average.
Cod prices have also fallen, dragging down export value with it, according to Wang. China imported 46,600 MT of cod from January to June worth USD 166 million (EUR 149 million), a drop of 1.8 percent by volume and 19.1 percent by value. The price of 1 MT of cod was, on average, USD 3,563 (EUR 3,207), a drop of 18.1 percent.
Okeanrybflot Commercial Director Dimitry Gusev said that since 2022, the price of pollock has dropped heavily, and the industry’s push to catch more has resulted in it struggling to sell all its catch.
"A great many of our colleagues from the fishing sector ... are operating at a loss this year,” Gusev said. “If we take the second-tier companies, the top 20 or top 30, then more and more Russian companies are forced to sell fish below cost.”
