The imposition of restrictions on fish exports from the Far East to China due to the pandemic has led to disruptions in export shipments of Far Eastern products.
According to Vostokgosplan experts’ estimates, the total income from exports of fish caught in the Far Eastern Federal District fell by more than 4% to $71.1 million in the first half of 2020.
However, analysts say, “export restrictions can further accelerate the development of the fish-processing industry in the Far East.
Projects in the territories of advanced development and the free port of Vladivostok, which are covered by a system of preferences, tax and other benefits, are already making a significant contribution to the development of fish-processing capacities. According to the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (FEDC), 39 residents of ASEZs and SPVs are already implementing investment projects to create fish and seafood processing facilities, producing steaks, minced meat, canned food, caviar and seafood delicacies.
Twelve enterprises have already been put into operation under the Far Eastern preferential regimes. Most of them are located in Kamchatka and Primorsky Krai (PSA “Kamchatka”, “Bolshoi Kamen” and “Nadezhdinskaya”), Sakhalin (PSA “Yuzhnaya”) and Khabarovsk Krai (PSA “Nikolaevsk”). The total capacity of new enterprises is about 2 thousand tons of products per day.
Another 27 fish processing projects of SPV and ASEZ residents are in the process of construction and will be commissioned in 2021-2025. Planned production capacity of new enterprises will exceed 3.1 thousand tons per day. Chukotka is the leader in fish processing industry development, 8 fish processing plants are being built in the region. Another 6 projects are being implemented in Kamchatka Krai.
Intensive construction of fish processing facilities (including both coastal plants and processing ships) was stimulated by the support program “Quotas for investment”, which was initiated and implemented with the support of Yuri Trutnev, Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District. The products of Far Eastern enterprises go both to the domestic market and for export.