Russia planning fish investment quota auctions in summer of 2023

MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) plans to hold auctions in the summer of 2023 in the second stage of distribution of fish investment quotas, including crab auctions.

"We expect that in the summer we will be able to hold auctions for both investment quotas and crabs. For us, the most important thing is to continue building fishing vessels and processing plants so that this trend remains positive for a sufficiently long period of time," agency chief Ilya Shestakov said at a press conference.

He said the sector's investment program to 2030 was being laid. "Plus, we will propose that such objects as infrastructure in sea fishing ports appear among investment targets so that we can debottleneck there," he said.

It became possible to hold auctions as part of the second stage of the distribution of fish investment quotas following the adoption of amendments to the Law on Fishing and Conservation of Aquatic Biological Resources. They provide for the allocation for investment purposes of an additional 20% of the total allowable catch (TAC) of fish in the Far Eastern basin, and 50% of the TAC of certain types of crabs.

"This law is very important from the point of view of the sector's development, its investment potential," and compromises during its lengthy discussion. "Next year, our main task is to adopt regulatory legal acts promptly," he said.

The continuation of resource research is another important area for 2023, Shestakov said. "Less money has been allocated for resource research next year due to the transfer of our institutes to the Education and Science Ministry, but in general we hope it will be enough to fulfill our main task to conduct all resource research and determine the TAC for 2024," he said.

He said that for science it was also important to continue to build medium-tonnage research vessels. "I hope that next year we will adapt this work. We had to redesign our research vessels, as we planned to ship some of the equipment from the so-called unfriendly countries. We have been looking for a replacements," he said.