Sakhalin Region plans to double volume of fish farming, processing in five years - governor

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. July 11 (Interfax) - The Sakhalin Region plans to be build ten salmon fish hatcheries by 2027, and the region expects to double the volume of fish processing in the coming years, regional governor Valery Limarenko told journalists on Thursday after a meeting with Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister and Envoy of the Russian President in the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD).

"Today, we talked about the development of fish hatcheries. Thus, 13 plants were built in the five-year period [2019-2023], and another 10 will be built in the next three years [by 2027]. That is, the volume of fish processing and fish farming will in fact double in the next five years," Limarenko said.

Limarenko added that five fish processing plants were built in the region in 2019-2023, and four more will appear by 2027.

Currently, 77 fish farms in the region are engaged in the artificial reproduction of Pacific salmon. In 2023, they released more than 1.4 billion salmon fry into the sea, which was 33 million more than the previous year.

According to information on the regional government website, 729 enterprises engaged in fishing, fish farming, and processing aquatic bio-resources were registered in the Sakhalin Region as on January 1, 2024. Regional anglers caught 774,500 tonnes of aquatic bio-resources in 2023, down 0.2% year-on-year, and regional fish processing enterprises produced 467,300 tonnes of products, down 6.8% year-on-year.

Far Eastern Customs Administration data indicate that the Sakhalin Region's fisheries enterprises exported 265,200 tonnes of aquatic bio-resources totaling $734.5 million last year. The countries of the Asia-Pacific region, namely South Korea, China, and Japan, remained the Sakhalin Region's main trading partners in 2023.