FAO features its expertise at Russian Fisheries key event

“The fishing industry is one of the major sectors in the Russian economy and is of strategic importance for ensuring food security of the country,” Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev said at the opening ceremony of the III Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo 2019 in St. Petersburg.

“The state is systematically implementing measures to support the private sector, creates the conditions for long-term planning and development of the production of bio-resources, aquaculture, processing and fisheries infrastructure as a whole. There is a continuous process of upgrading the scientific base, resuming field explorations, modernizing the fleet,” Patrushev said.

The first positive results of such an integrated approach have not been long in coming. In 2018, Russia produced more than five million tons of aquatic bioresources. This is an absolute record for the past 25 years, the Minister said, adding that the Russian Federation ranks fourth in industrial fisheries in the world, providing more than five percent of global production. Here some of the key figures on the industry cited at the forum: a total of about 7,900 companies, 16 holdings, about 550 fishing vessels, exports of around USD 4.5 billion, 45% profitability, etc.

This year, the leading theme of the forum was “Ocean of opportunities: nature, economy, people”. More than 2,000 delegates from 21 countries attended the forum and the expo, including Norway, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Morocco, Turkey, China, the Republic of Korea, etc.

Currently, the fisheries industry of the Russian Federation faces a daring task: to increase exports of fish and seafood to 8 billion dollars annually. (Russia is striving to ensure that, by 2024, its agricultural exports reach USD 45 billion).

GLOBEFISH ready to partner with Russian fisheries and aquaculture

GLOBEFISH, a unit of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department responsible for collecting information and analyzing international trade in fish and fish products, as well as for reviewing the state of markets, presented at the forum its statistics on the state of the fishing industry in Russia.

The share of fisheries in the Russian GDP amounts to 0.2531%. Measured by weight, fish produced in the country and available for consumption amounts to 22.9 kg per capita. Total catch and aquaculture reaches more than five mln tons (catch – 96%, aquaculture – 4%).

Import of fish and fish products by Russia, according to data for 2017, reached more than 185 million tons, which in value terms amounted to USD 1.6 billion. At the same time, export of fish and fish products for 2017 were registered at the level of almost 87 million tons with revenues of USD 2.5 billion.

The top ten exports of Russia for the same year form the following pyramid: Crabs (frozen); Cod (frozen; excluding fillets, livers and roes); Liver roes milt (frozen); Crabs (live, fresh or chilled); Pacific salmon (frozen; excluding fillets, livers and roes); Herrings (frozen; excluding fillets, livers and roes); Sockeye salmon – red salmon (frozen; excluding fillets, livers and roes); Shrimps, prawns (frozen, cold-water species); Flours, meals, pellets (from fish or aquatic invertebrates unfit for human consumption); Alaska Pollack (frozen fillets).

Fish is the most common export-import commodity in the global trade in animal protein in value terms, which is confirmed by statistics. In his presentation at the plenary session, Marcio Castro de Souza, Senior Fishery Officer at FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, noted that the shares of animal protein products in international trade are distributed as follows: beef – 19.9%, pork – 15.2%, poultry – 14.5%, fish – 50.4%.

The fishing industry is dynamic in every sense. In addition to the steady growth observed primarily in the aquaculture segment, the FAO expert underlined the crucial structural and systemic changes that are currently underway.

Product safety requirements are becoming a must as well as certification of production from the point of view of sustainable development. There is a new approach: “Know your product”, and for all the participants in the value chains there is an on-going process of “discovering new areas” – new products, technologies, markets. The principle of corporate social responsibility has become a prerequisite for commercial success.

For competent management of fisheries on the scale of a single company and the state as a whole, it is necessary to take account of all these factors – that will help achieve a synergistic effect. FAO can also play a positive role in this. “FAO is a key organization that supports countries with information and knowledge through capacity-development activities”, de Souza stressed. At the same time, the ultimate goal for FAO is to develop and consolidate “sustainable fish trade for today and tomorrow.”

Aquaculture to catch up and to surpass commercial catch

Aquaculture, according to FAO, is present in the economies of 202 countries and territories. Over the past two decades, annual global aquaculture production has more than tripled – from 24 million tons to about 78 million tons. If in the 1990s, the share of aquaculture products in the total consumption of fish and seafood was about 30%, by 2015, it reached more than 50%. The industry has rightly earned a reputation as the fastest growing. In Russia, there is a stable growth of the sector by about ten percent a year.

Perspectives and problems of the sector featured prominently at the sessions within the framework of the “Day of Aquaculture” held on the second day of the III Global Fishery Forum. FAO, the Eurasian Aquaculture Alliance and ExpoSolutionsGroup jointly organized expert discussions at three consecutive round tables.

“In Russia, aquaculture plays an important role, including as a point of growth of the fishery sector as a whole, – Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Gordeev stressed in his greeting to the participants of the “Day of Aquaculture”. “The sectoral program for the development of commercial aquaculture involves an increase of production to 325,000 tons by 2020.” Today, A. Gordeev noted, “local production is actively developing, especially in regions where the average consumption of fish per capita has traditionally been low.”

In Russia, aquaculture represents four percent of the total volume of fishing, while the volume of production totals to a quarter of the gross production in the EU, said the moderator of the first round table, Ekaterina Tribilustova, Senior Project Manager of the international organization Eurofish (Denmark), before requesting Vasily Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, what prospects the domestic industry has.

The emphasis on aquaculture is justified as commercial fishing has hit a plateau and is unlikely to provide significant yield increases in future. According to the forecast of Vasily Sokolov, the growth rate of the industry in Russia in the coming years – subject to appropriate government support – may be in the range between five and ten percent.

Since the rate of growth in global fish consumption since 1961 has been twice that of the world's population, the natural response to this challenge is to tap the full potential of aquaculture. The limits of the growth of commercial fish production will inevitably boost the development of aqua-and mariculture, noted in his speech at the first round table on “Aquaculture: Current Situation, Progress and Challenges” Marcio Castro de Souza.

FAO’s expert predicts that in the foreseeable future, the production of aquaculture products will reach 100 million tons and will exceed the volume of commercial fishing.

Progress will be facilitated by positive changes in research and technology in the field of aquaculture, stressed de Souza. Quality planning, including the development of strategies and tactics; more advanced technologies of fish breeding, supported by research in the field of genetics and breeding; improvement of biosafety measures; application of revolutionary engineering solutions and more advanced mechanisms; and modern business models and competent management will all enhance the sector.

Opportunities and challenges to growth

There are three characteristics of/three advantages to aquaculture. It:

• contributes to economic growth and development by increasing the production of safe and high-quality seafood;

• creates income and decent work opportunities in the industry and related sectors throughout the production chain, including fish processing, marketing and sales;

• promotes domestic and international trade.

Indeed, over the past fifteen years, this segment of the Russian economy has grown threefold. In Europe, only Norway is comparable in growth rates, said Yuri Kitashin, President of the Union of Aquaculture.

However, today there are objective obstacles to further development. These include the fact that all areas suitable for this type of production have been taken already. Human factor: there is a need for competent specialists, including managers. This is the “growth problem”. ”Family business is one thing, but when it comes to the level of production in thousand tons, it requires a subtle approach to risk management," said Kitashin. In addition, it is necessary to improve the technological base, for example, to switch to automated feeding, and to introduce modern management methods. The expert does not expect “explosive growth”, but maintaining the rate of ten percent is more than enough, in his view.

Given that fisheries provide direct and indirect employment to at least 120 million people worldwide, and that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda (Sustainable Development Goals) requires the eradication of hunger and the provision of adequate nutrition, the industry has a crucial and responsible mission.