Government mulling mandatory sale of crabs and Pollock roe at Russian auctions

The Government of Russia is now mulling mandatory sale of crab and APO roe at auctions meaning that harvesters will be not allowed to export their products without bringing at least a part of the catch to auction, according to the nation’s fishery head Ilya Shestakov quoted by RG.

Such auctions will have to comply with special requirements such as transparency of sales. Therefore the government is to work out new standards for the sales’ procedures and requirements for auction sites.

Other draft laws

Actually now there are eight draft laws for the nation’s fishery industry in the pipeline in Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture. One of the most important implies introduction of amendments into the Tax Code towards higher levies for aquatic biological resources and modernization of the system of tax privileges. According to the draft law, preferences and state support should be offered, first of all, to the nation’s companies engaged in fish processing and delivering products to the domestic market.

Another important initiative is introduction of electronic fishing log enabling companies to get fishing permits and send catch data online. The innovation is supposed to raise efficiency of data and documents exchange along with strengthening control of fishing activity. Moreover, the fishery officials discuss possibility of video recording onboard fishing vessels and use of electronic measuring instruments. Such instruments would enable to transfer information online directly into the monitoring system.