News

Russian Fisherу Company (RFC) in the first half of 2020 exceeded the planned catch and production targets.

Oyster production in the Krasnodar Territory near Sochi where the Olympic Winter Games 2014 has tripled during the last five years. Now the local farmers harvest ca. 190 metric tons of Black Sea oysters per year.

In January-June 2020 Russian fleets harvested 2,640,930 metric tons of fish and other aquatic species, 7% up year-on-year. The catch forecast for the second half of the year looks fairly good.

At the Russian Pollock factory, that the Russian Fishery Company (RFC) is building in Primorsky Territory, equipment commissioning has begun. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for September 1 of this year.

The new fishing vessels built for Russian Fishery Company (RFC) will be environmentally friendly and provide the most economical levels of energy efficiency. Ensuring that CO2 emissions per ton of fish weight will be reduced by 50% compared with existing vessels.

The board of Icelandic fishing and processing company Brim has announced investment worth €85 million in Greenlandic company Arctic Prime Fisheries.

At the Admiralty Shipyards (St. Petersburg), a solemn ceremony of launching the first serial vessel for the Russian Fishery Company (“Mechanic Maslak”) took place. Commissioning of the vessel is scheduled for autumn 2021. In total, 10 similar vessels will be built by the Admiralty Shipyards for the RFC.

Brim hf. has become the main sponsor of the environmental organisation The Blue Army that has for 25 years fought the plastic pollution of the ocean by cleaning the coastline and through encouragement increased public awareness of this important issue. 

As per June 7, 2020 Russia’s catches of Pacific salmons in the Far Eastern Fisheries Basin amounted to ca.690 metric tons.

Work has started on a scheduled main engine overhaul for pelagic vessel Venus, and this is being done in Reykjavík. Venus steamed to Reykjavík after landing blue whiting in Vopnarfjörður.

The Governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako visited the site of the Russian Pollock fish processing plant, which the Russian Fishery Company (RFC) is building on the territory of the “Nadezhdinskaya” priority development area (Primorsky Krai). The commissioning of the plant is scheduled for September 1 of this year.

According to preliminary data, in January-March 2020, Russia produced more than 112.8 thousand metric tons of farmed fish, by 37.5% up on Q1 2019.

By May 20, 2020 the total volume of aquatic biological resources harvested by Russian fleets amounted to more than 2.01 million metric tons, 5.9% or 116,600 tonnes up on the corresponding result of last year.

‘Most of this trip we were on the area known as the landing strip, or the Dritvík Shallows, and we allowed ourselves some time to go south to the Skerja Deeps and the Mountains. We did well for cod on the Landing strip, and also had some redfish and saithe,’ said skipper Friðleifur Einarsson when Helga María docked at the beginning of the week with 150 tonnes on board.

At the Admiralty Shipyards (St. Petersburg) the lead vessel of the series of supertrawlers for the Russian Fishery Company was lauched in the end of March 2020. Taking into account the epidemiological situation and recommendations for holding mass events, the ceremony was held with a minimum number of participants.

In April 2020 the Russian fleets harvested 112,100 metric tons of bottom and pelagic fish in the Atlantic Ocean. This was 800 tonnes less as compared to March.

Brim’s pelagic vessels have both docked in Vopnafjörður, bringing around 5000 tonnes of blue whiting between them. Víkingur’s catch was 2550 tonnes and Venus landed roughly 2600 tonnes.

The total harvest of Alaska pollock in Russia’s Far East Fishery Basin as per 21 April 2020 amounted to ca.1.04 million metric tons, 8.1% up on the corresponding result of 2019, according to the nation’s sectoral system for monitoring (SSM).

Construction is currently underway at Samherji's land-based fish farming site in Grindavík. Three new sea holes have been drilled in the lava at the site.

The challenge to produce anguillid glass eels for large-scale aquaculture endures in Japan

Other fresh products which stopped being imported in the EU in March are fresh hake from Namibia and Chile, common sole from Iceland, fresh scallops from the USA, fresh clams from Tunisia, fresh blue mussels from Norway and fresh Nile perch fillets from Uganda. 

Online sales and home delivery of seafood products have increased rapidly during lockdown. Although from low volumes, e-commerce sales of fresh produce have increased by 25% and online takeaway deliveries have doubled, according to Rabobank analysts.

The Easter period drove up demand and prices in Italy. In week 15, prices were up in Rome wholesale market compared to week 14, especially for clam and bigger gilthead seabream but down for Tyrrhenian anchovy.

Emergency measures in Ecuador might impact supply of tuna products and in turn the Spanish tuna canning industry, which is highly dependent on frozen tuna loins from Ecuador.

The aquafeed producer BioMar states that the measures taken across Europe to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 have had no negative consequences on feed production and deliveries from their production facilities in Greece, Spain, France, Denmark (and Turkey).

In week 15, available first-sales data for a handful of EU Member States shows increase in first-sales prices for several groundfish and flatfish species. 

Marubeni Corporation and Nippon Suisan (Europe) B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Suisan Kaisha, have reached an agreement to jointly acquire 66.7% of the shares of Danish Salmon A/S as of April 15, 2020, and participate in the salmon farming business via the implementation of a recirculating aquaculture system.

Six Russian trawlers are harvesting blue whiting in the Faroese Fishing Zone but the catches are still behind last year.  The fleet is waiting for the runs of spent fish but so far in vain.

The total harvest of Alaska pollock in Russia’s Far East Fishery Basin as per 14 April 2020 amounted to ca.1.02 million metric tons, 7.3% up on the corresponding result of 2019, according to the nation’s sectoral system for monitoring (SSM).

By April 8, 2020 the total volume of aquatic biological resources harvested by Russian fleets amounted to more than 1.5 million metric tons, 5.7% or 81,600 tonnes up on the corresponding result of last year.