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.”
The comments came as Fishnews reported Sakhalin-based company Amurskoye won an auction for quotas of crab in Russia’s Far Eastern Basin – after an earlier auction win by Merlion was declared invalid by an arbitration court claiming that the company was under illegal foreign control.
The RBC Group reported that multiple companies have had their contracts terminated by Rosrybolovstvo on the grounds they didn’t meet obligations.
Despite the relative lack of interest in the quotas, VARPE said Rosrybolovstvo continues to set aside thousands of tons of quota for the auctions – tonnage that ends up going unused.
The 6,400 metric tons (MT) of unused crab quota ends up costing the Russian government RUB 4 billion (USD 39 million, EUR 37 million) in taxes, fees, and duties from exports, according to VARPE.
According to RBC, Rosrybolovstvo Head Ilya Shestakov said the agency is likely going to follow VARPE’s advice after the failed auctions.
"There was a position of ‘let's try again,’ but we tried again - it didn't work,” he said. “We will discuss this with colleagues and make a decision in the near future: either to negotiate again, or, indeed, to accept our proposal to remove them from investment quotas.”
