Russia to modernize fishing fleet

Head of the Russian Federal Fishery Agency, Andrey Krainy, says cooperation with Norway over trawler fleet modernization is a necessity. The obsolete Russian fishing fleet now is in dire need of upgrades and Krainy said “Our fishermen cannot compete with the Norwegians because the prime cost of our production is 25% higher due to enormous fuel consumption level.”

The Federal program for the development of the commercial deep-sea fleet provides allocations of 1 billion rubles for the construction of new fishing vessels. Within the framework of this program there will be requests for tenders for the construction of small, medium and large capacity vessels under the state control.

Krainiy in the interview stressed that federal authorities should use mechanisms of state guarantees or direct financing of the shipyards for construction of new vessels. Then the vessels will be passed to the private companies under the strict registration conditions. The Fishery Agency leader also highlighted the successful cooperation with Norway at the Brussels European seafood exhibition in April this year where Russia and Norway submitted a joint presentation on the use of the resources of the Barents and North Seas.