Russia exports over 1 mln tonnes of fish to China in 2022

ROSTOV-ON-DON. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Russia exported more than 1 million tonnes of fish to China in 2022, the deputy head of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Vasily Sokolov said on Tuesday.

"The United States have completed closed to exports of Russian fish products. Europe has not closed yet, but imposed a number of restrictions. The main market now is China. More than 1 million tonnes have been going there in recent years. Although there were difficulties last year due to strict Covid restrictions being in effect there, now they've been lifted. In principle, our exporters are pleased by this development," Sokolov told reporters.

He said Russia is developing a digital ecosystem with Chinese importers in order to process shipping permits in digital form.

"But in general the main goal is to saturate the domestic market. We're seeing a decent dynamic. The domestic market is interesting for our fishers and fish farmers. Aquaculture is continuing to develop [in Russia]. We have not yet tallied the results, they will be [ready] by April 1, a summary for all of Russia. But we expect that there will be an addition to the record figure of last year, when we had the best result since the Soviet era," Sokolov said.

Russian exports of fish, shellfish, molluscs and other seafood fell 11.5% to 1.645 million tonnes in 2021, but the value of these exports grew by 26% to $5.85 billion.