Russian Salmon Company, one of Russia’s largest fish producers, has announced plans to establish a large-scale aquaculture complex in the Murmansk region of Russia, which will specialise on the production of juvenile Atlantic salmon and trout, reports Eugene Gerden.
According to Andrew Laskov, general director of Russian Salmon, the new plant will be built on a 12ha site in the Little Volokovaya Bay. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2014 and the first phase of the plant is expected to be launched in spring 2016.
The volume of production during the first phase will be 10 million juveniles and is expected to be increased up to 30 million during the second stage.
The volume of investment in the project has not been disclosed, however, according to sources close to the company, it could be up to RUB8bn (USD$240m).
Russian analysts believe that the establishment of such a complex will help to partially reduce Russia’s current dependence on the supplies of Atlantic salmon from Norway and to stimulate domestic production.
According to Dennis Bezruchko, a senior analyst of St. Petersburg Fisherman Club, at present the annual volume of supplies of Norway Atlantic salmon to Russia is about 135,000 tonnes, which is a large figure for Russia. The implementation of the project will help to solve this problem.
However, he also warned that the company may face serious problems during the implementation of the project – in particular high mortality rate of juveniles, as well as a longer period of implementation of the project, as the growth of fish in Murmansk takes significantly longer than in Norway, due to colder conditions.
At the same time analysts believe that implementation of the project will be very important for Russia, as the level of development of the country’s aquaculture leaves much to be desired.
According to the Federal Agency for Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture, the share of Russia in global aquaculture production is currently estimated at only 0.2%. The recently approved federal law On aquaculture’, aims to create more favourable conditions for the development of aquaculture in Russia and to significantly increase the level of production.
In the meantime, Russian Salmon is not the only Russian company, which plans to become a prominent player in the domestic salmon market in the coming years.
Russian Sea, Russia’s leading fish producer and processor, is also involved in production of Atlantic salmon in the Barents Sea. Several weeks ago the company commissioned the second phase of its aquaculture plant in the Murmansk region and plans to continue to build its aquaculture business in the future.
Mercator Media Ltd 2013