Growing legalization on Russian pink salmon market

In the year 2007 the Russian fishery industry authorities took further steps to fight against illegal and unreported wild salmon catches in the Russian Far East, according to a spokesman of Moscow branch of Tikhrybkom Group.

More specifically, this year the fishermen have been undergoing catch registration directly on the grounds of catch transshipment, control of salmon shipments via ports and at destinations.

Therefore presence of unreported salmon or its absence do not play a great role in price formation. Out of Russia's annual consumption of ca.300,000 metric tons of salmons the percentage of illegal fish is estimated at no more than 2-3%, according to the spokesman.

The price changes are caused first of all by such factors as the actual TAC take-up, the share of salmon export (in particular, reflecting the activity of the Chinese buyers). Besides, the absence of developed, modern system of logistic services for large volumes of peaking landings of products slows down handling of fish cargoes in ports thus making the fishermen sell their catches at lower prices in order to avoid extra expenses for storage and reloading from coldstores.

Inventories

According to Tikhrybkom Group, the inventories of salmon from the fishing season 2006 amount to less than 1000 tonnes in Moscow and the surrounding region. In case of legal coldstorage the facility's veterinarian routinely takes samples from every product lot and if there are no organoleptic changes and the SANPiN sanitary standards are complied with, the storage life of products is extended by another month. Pink salmon should be stored under constant temperature with the fish having neither dried-up nor oxidized flesh. The condition of packaging is also of great importance. Cargo and coldstorage owners are in charge of compliance with those requirements.

Control

Legally working Moscow-based operators have already got used to stricter control of products' legality and to standard package of papers currently required to receive cargoes in the capital and in the surrounding region. The package includes copies of fishing permits, raw material sale and purchase contracts, payment orders, certificates and some other papers proving legality of the cargo. According to the spokesman, serious fishing companies have no problem to collect those papers and responsible operators have no objections to the efforts of the authorities towards establishment of law and order on the market.