Russia plans to significantly increase fish production over the coming years, thanks to the recent joining of Crimea, reports Eugene Gerden.
The country also plans to create conditions for the recovery of the fishing industry of the Peninsula.
Such statements were made during a recent visit of an official delegation of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and the Russian Federal Agency of Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo) to the Peninsula.
According to preliminary estimates by Rosrybolovstvo, total fish and seafood catch in Crimea is currently estimated at about 80,000 tons per year, while the majority of production accounts for sprat and gobies. Kerch and Sevastopol currently remain the centres of fishing production in Crimea. In the case of Sevastopol, the city currently has 10 fishing enterprises, which operate a fishing fleet comprised of more than 20 fishing vessels of small and medium size.
The Russian government plans to complete the integration of the Crimean fishing industry into the Russian fishing industry in the coming weeks, which is important as the Ukranian government has blocked all supplies of Crimean fish and seafood in the market, which may result in huge losses of local producers, because of overstocking. However there is a possibility that Crimean fish producers will be able to reorient to the Russian market in April.
This will be significantly accelerated thanks to a recent decision by the Russian government to establish a territorial division of Rosrybolovstvo in the Peninsula.
The Russian government hopes that fish catch in the Crimea will be substantially increased in the near future and will reach the Soviet figures of 177,000 tonnes per year, with the production range of more than 40 species.
