Change of ownership in MTF-Murmansk government joint venture

Murmansk Gubernsky Flot (a joint venture between Murmansk Trawl Fleet and Murmansk Oblast government) has undergone a change in its ownership structure.

When this member of MTF Consortium was established back in 1998, the shares of Murmansk province government and Murmansk Trawl Fleet plc were equal, but now the share of Murmansk province government has decreased to 26%, while the share of Murmansk Trawl Fleet in the capital of Gubernsky Flot has increased to 74%.

The initiative to establish the fishing company belongs to Murmansk province governor Yuri Yevdokimov and management of Murmansk Trawl Fleet. The idea was to give rise to an independent mixed capital fleet to cover linked quotas designed to boost onshore processing. The company was supposed to run five fishing vessels, but at present it has only three STM trawlers of the Orlyonok series (design No.333) built in Stralsund (German Democratic Republic) in mid-1980s (length of 62.2 meters, breadth of 13.8 meters and total capacity of 1895 tonnes).

The company says that they have been facing a lack of catch quotas just like other users of the basin. In the recent four years the company has been purchasing quotas. In the year 2006 Gubernsky Flot purchased 6200 tonnes of saithe via Norges Rafisklag in Norway. The company's trawlers received catches from local fishermen in the Norwegian fjords for further processing, freezing and transportation to Murmansk, though the company complained that they had not profited much from such operations.