Salmon smolt. (Photo: Stock File)
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Friday, August 15, 2014, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia together with Rosrybolovstvo federal fishery agency are devising proposals on the changes in the list of food from the European Union, the US, Canada, Australia and Norway, whose import has been banned due to the sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict with Ukrania.
The list of sanctions will likely be shrunk shortly. Along with smolt, Russia will restart imports of lactose-free milk, nutritional supplements, seeds and diabetes supplies, Barentsnova reported.
This decision was welcomed by two major farm fish producers in the country -- Russian Sea-Aquaculture and Russian salmon -- which depend on the smolts imported from Norway to perform their operations.
Before the ban was set, the two firms had voiced their plans to have their own smolt supplies.
"In this situation, to have our own facilities is a necessity, but the construction will take at least two years, and the planting season will end in August", says Russian Sea – Aquaculture CEO Dmitry Dangauer. "Besides, the smolt was ordered before the embargo."
The local salmon farming sector has been facing hardships after the ban.
"We have informed the Government of Russia about the urgent need to make the relevant decisions. Should it be postponed, from 2016 Russian consumers will be left without domestic salmon. Thus, the implementation of the program of import substitution for our companies in 2016 depends on today's decision", the Russian Fishery Union expressed in a statement.
Fishery Union representative Leonov Konstantin explained that the imports of Atlantic salmon smolt for breeding farms in the Murmansk region have been stopped on the border,
"Under transportation conditions smolt’s life cycle is limited. So we have less than 72 hours to carry out all customs procedures and transfer this planting material from the ship to fish ponds in the region," Leonov stated.
Meanwhile, Aquaculture Director at the Norwegian Seafood Federation Trond Davidsen told the newspaper Barents Observer that his organization had heard nothing about the possible lifting of the smolt embago.
According to the Fishery Union, in 2014 aquaculture in Russia will meet consumers needs of chilled salmon by 10 per cent. But in 4 or 5 years aquaculture farms in North-West Russia will reach the level of 70,000 tonnes of salmon annually, which is about one-third of the present consumption.
Related articles:
- Russia bans food imports to retaliate against sanctions
- Russian ban on Norwegian seafood poses 'a challenging situation'