Aquaculture around St. Petersburg to move forward at greater rate

Aquaculture operations in Leningrad Oblast surrounding St. Petersburg are showing good growth dynamics of the annual fish farming output, according to the Russian Fish Insider Report published by http://www.megafishnet.com/.  

The province's government says that last year the fish farms produced 4613 metric tonnes of mostly rainbow trout and in 2011 the volume of aquaculture production is set to go up by 30% to 6000 tonnes.

At present 40 establishments are farming commodity fish while 8 companies major in the production of stocking material.

The advance of the industry was in certain part driven by the support of the province's government which has allocated RUR15 million (ca. $ 535 000) to help subsidize the borrowing rates on the investment credits towards purchase of the brood stock as well as surveys of water bodies.

Among the projects completed in 2009 it is worth to note the rebuilding and modernization of the government-owned hatchery for production of salmon fingerlings and the construction of a private Coregonus whitefish hatchery by OOO Forwat (Ltd).

The investment plans for 2011-2012 include construction of one more hatchery and a number of fish farms in the Vyborg Bay of the Baltic Sea.