Russia’s government has decided that 50 percent of its crab quotas will be distributed via auctions, a measure the fishery industry has been actively fighting against since it was first announced in October 2017.
The announcement was made by Russia’s Federal Fisheries Agency in its “Plan On The Development Of Anti-Monopoly Policy For The Period Of 2018 – 2020,” which was unveiled on the agency’s website in late August.
The plan, which is a nonbinding road map for the agency, calls for amendments to laws outlining the current method of distribution of crab quotas based on historical catch totals, which has been in place since 2004. These amendments must be made during the years of 2018 and/or 2019, which means first auctions might be held in 2019 or 2020, according to the plan.
The plan is the first official document to confirm the government’s previously-reported desire to raise additional funds for the federal budget through the revival of crab quota auctions.
Despite having the status of an official paper, the plan is not a law, decree, or any other legally-binding document, giving the government space for future maneuvering. That may come in handy, as the proposed changes have already come under withering criticism from many in the crab industry in Russia. Critics claim the auctions will force a halt in ongoing investment projects initiated as part of the government’s efforts to renew Russia’s fishery fleet with the help of investments quotas.
The head of the Longline Fishery Association, Vyacheslav Bychkov, said in an interview with Fishnews that the introduction of auctions will stop many investment projects. Moreover, he fears that auctions will be extended beyond crab to other sectors of the industry.
The Fishery Commission of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the biggest business organization in the country, said in a statement on its website it calculated that auctions will “withdraw” RUB 155 billion (USD 2.3 billion, EUR 1.95 billion) of direct investments into the national fishery sector through 2027, with up to RUB 145 billion (USD 2.1 billion, EUR 1.8 billion) of losses occurring in ancillary sectors.
The debate is set to continue. Representatives of Russia’s crabbing sector, as well as its larger fishing and seafood industries, have plans to organize a special congress to address the issue. German Zverev, the head of Russian Association of Fisheries, Entrepreneurs and Exporters (VARPE), the main organizer of the congress, said that fishermen proposed an alternative to the government – changes in taxation, which would make it possible for the government to get more money from the industry paid in taxes. The idea was introduced to the authorities, but then was defeated by bureaucratic foot-dragging, Zverev said.
