The Level of Fish Consumption Has Grown in Russia In Spite of Global Recession

18 Mar 2010 • by Natalie Aster

In content of internal business processes the Russian fish market (fishery and seafood production, manufacture of ready-for-use fish products, canned fish or preserve of seafood) is complicated and diverse.

The experts of Information Agency “Credinform North-West” have come to such conclusion after making a complex marketing research “The Russian market of fish and sea food processing and canning: state, trends and its development prospects”. According to experts, such characteristics are explained with great mass availability of players on market (more than ten thousand), for example: fishers, fish-processing enterprises, wholesalers, suppliers of import products, as well as companies, enterprises, economies, trading networks with certain infrastructures.

The Russian fish market has a great deal of issues which are as follows: technical regulations absence, heavy buyers on B2B market, infrastructure restrictions, low level of competition, illegal production (catching) of water bioresources and export of fish products abroad, decrease in stocks of water bioresources, dependence in import, matter of quality of sold fish products (fishery & pisciculture), state of fishing fleet and others.

The global recession has affected the fish market, nevertheless. Consequences of economic crisis in Russia according to notes of experts were growth in number of accounts receivable; problems with drawing up; change in profit towards a reduction, etc. However, in spite of the crisis the fish industry was able to keep one’s balance under existing conditions and growth rates figures of fish catching and seafood production increased up to 114%, manufacture of ready-for-use fish products without canned fish – about 107%. The average rate of increase in catching of fish and seafood production totally in industry over a period of 2005-2009 reached 4-5%, and over 4% in manufacture of ready-for-use fish products (without canned fish).

The adverse situation happened in manufacture of canned fish including tinned seafood. In 2009 production and consumption of canned goods decreased sharply and hardly reached 79,5%. Thus, the average rate in manufacture of canned fish has a decreasing behavior (-2.8%) over a period of 2005-2009 totally in industry.

The basic share of fish catching and seafood production, as well as processing and manufacture of ready-for-use fish products is operated in Far Eastern federal district (FD) – over 60%, as to share of fish & seafood goods sale by large and average wholesale enterprises located in Siberian FD – around 30%. The largest share of canned and preserve of fish/seafood was detected in North-West FD – over 57%, and share of sale turnover by large and average wholesale enterprises in Central FD – over 30%.

In future, according to basic scenario, experts forecast the increase of the Russian fish market by 4% in kind, and by 9% in value terms.