The All-Russian Association of the Fishing Industry (VARPE) is calling for Russia’s Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) to exclude deep-sea crab quotas from the list of resources sold through investment quota auctions.
VARPE said on its official telegram channel that its members discussed the issue at its general meeting on 5 December. At the meeting – which also discussed the high levels of debt the Russian seafood industry is dealing with – members said the current lack of profitability of the deep-sea crab fisheries have made investing in them difficult propositions.
Rosrybolovstvo has failed to sell investment quotas for certain crab auctions multiple times due to a lack of interest. VARPE pointed out that the agency has been trying to sell deep-sea crab production quotas tied to investment obligations since 2019, and has faced issues.
“The quotas for deep-sea crabs were not in demand at that time – as a result, they were sold at auctions at a reduced price, but then the contracts with investors were terminated,” VARPE said. “These crabs have already been excluded from the second stage of the reform, but they are still being reserved for the first stage...
