Russia expected to produce 24,000 tonnes of red caviar in 2023 - federal fisheries agency

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Red caviar production in Russia will total about 24,000 tonnes this year amid a strong salmon fishing season.

"This is no longer a forecast. More than 600,000 tonnes of salmon have been caught across the Far East. Accordingly, take 4% [or about 24,000 tonnes] and you have the output of red caviar," the deputy head of the Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo), Vasily Sokolov told reporters before a meeting of the Far East Fishery Research Council in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Thursday.

Red caviar production nearly tripled year-on-year to 21,147 tonnes in the first nine months of 2023. Fishing industry association VARPE forecast earlier that production for the year would top 25,000 tonnes. Caviar prices in the Far East are falling.

The salmon catch this fishing season was one of the highest on record at over 608,000 tonnes, less only than the catch of 2018, VARPE president German Zverev said. "This is what led to the drop in prices, first for red fish itself and then for its roe," he said, adding that red caviar production in the first nine months of 2023 was almost 17% than in the record year of 2018.