Moscow, Russia-based Russian Fishery Company (RFC) has announced it will build a new processing factory in Murmansk, designed to process cod and haddock caught in the Northern Fishery Basin.
The plant, which the company hopes to open by the end of 2019, will be built in partnership with the Moscow-based Agama Group, a frozen seafood marketer, at an estimated cost of USD 12 million (EUR 10.3 million). It will be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment designed for the production of high-quality value added fish products, including cod and haddock fillets and inces, and will have a daily processing capacity of 60 metric tons of finished seafood products, RFC said in a press release.
“The construction of the … factory is one of the major projects of the RFC strategy to increase the share of high value-added products in our portfolio,” RFC CEO Andrey Teterkin said.
RFC is hoping to take advantage of a government program offering companies additional fishing quota in exchange for building new seafood processing plants or vessels in Russia. The company said it expects to receive 1,800 metric tons of cod quota and 500 metric tons of haddock quota once the Murmansk factory is commissioned.
In addition, the firm has plans to build several other seafood processing plants as well as seven to nine new 105-meter-long, high-capacity “super trawler-processors” in Russia, in exchange for an additional 200,000 metric tons of quota by 2023 or 2024. RFC has already announced the construction of a pollock processing facility in Vladivostok and begun construction on the first of the trawlers, the first of which will be put into operation in 2020, according to the company.
“These projects will provide the company with a new level of efficiency in the production of high-quality products, which will ensure long-term business competitive position,” Teterkin said.
