The All-Russian Association of Fishing Industry (VARPE) is sounding an alarm on the Russian fishing industry’s debt load, which it said is rising fast.
The association posted on its Telegram channel that it estimates the total debt load of the fishing, fish farming, and processing industries reached a total debt of RUB 1.04 trillion (USD 9.2 billion, EUR 8.7 billion) in the first eight months of 2024. According to VARPE, that marks a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2023 and is also nearly three times more debt than it had in 2019.
Of that debt, 80 percent of it belongs to fishermen.
“The industry’s accounts payable are already 36 percent higher than its revenue in the same period; it reached RUB 662 billion [USD 5.9 billion, EUR 5.5 billion] in eight months,” VARPE said. “Meanwhile, the industry’s profit barely reached RUB 60 billion [USD 530 million, EUR 502 million], 26 percent less than last year.”
VARPE said the industry’s debt burden has been ...
