MSC certification of pink shrimp fishery will not harm Russian shrimp market
In early September, the Fishing Industry Union of the North (FIUN) gained Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in the Barents Sea. The certificate was presented to fishermen at the Seafood Expo Russia exhibition by representatives of the UCSL auditing company, which performed the fishery’s assessment, reportS Megafishnet.com.
According to Fishnews, CEO of UCSL Olga Shuvalova said that the shrimp fishery is important for Russian fishermen in the Northern Basin for the following reasons: in 2006 there was practically no catch, now the stocks of Northern shrimp in this area have greatly increased and the Russian fishery makes up 40% of the total catch of all countries (more than 50 thousand tons) in Russian and international waters of the Barents Sea. Therefore, certification of this fishery is important as for the fishermen themselves to expand sales markets, increase the competitiveness of their products, and for our country as a whole - to improve its international image.
Sergey Sennikov representing the Norebo Group, which includes several enterprises that produce shrimp, agrees with this assessment. He called the MSC certificate a new stage of development for the Russian fishing industry as a whole and specifically the shrimp fishery.
"In recent years, we have seen a revival of the Russian northern shrimp fishery, which took place in parallel with the MSC certification of other stocks. We hope that for our companies that catch shrimp, the MSC certificate will be an incentive for the development of the fishery in the future,” - said representative of NOREBO Group Sergey Sennikov.
At the same time, the domestic market will remain a priority for most companies, the representative of Norebo is sure. "We produce shrimp products, pack and deliver them to the retail chains under our brand. I can say that we definitely want to keep supplies to Russia and are not going to redirect them to export," Sergey Sennikov commented on the market prospects.
According to him, on average, the volume of product deliveries to Russian retail chains is growing by 60-70% per year, and this growth was not affected even by the pandemic. This year, Norebo plans to supply about 3 thousand tons of fish products to retail chains, whereas last year this volume was about 2 thousand tons. The total volume of fish products supplied by Norebo companies to Russia is about 160 thousand tons per year.
"The demand for high-quality fish products in Russia is gradually growing, not only in traditional consumer centres such as Moscow and the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, but also in other regions," said Sergey Sennikov. — This is a progressive process. I think that the Russian market is actually quite capable of competing with foreign ones."