News & Views
Russia shifts aquaculture development targets

In 2023, Russian aquaculture production will exceed 400,000 tonnes, ahead of the original forecasts, according to Rosrybolovstvo, the Russian federal agency for fisheries. 

The Russian authorities might need to revise the aquaculture development targets for the coming years, as fish farming outperforms the official projections, Maxim Sokolov, deputy head of Rosrybolovstvo, stated. 

By 2030, the output in the industry is scheduled to reach 600,000 tonnes, according to a state development plan. By that time, nearly 613 billion roubles (US$6.5 billion) will be invested in ramping up production capacities, Ilya Shestakov, head of Rosrybolovstvo, disclosed during a conference in September 2023. 

During the next seven years, the industry’s turnover is slated to reach 888 billion roubles (US$9.2 billion) per year, nearly 60 per cent up compared with 2022, Shestakov added. 

Salmon production remained the largest and the fastest growing segment of the Russian fish farming industry, accounting for 154,000 tonnes of production last year, Sokolov said. A strong dependence of this segment on imported feed remains one of the critical challenges for future growth. 

Providing that the current growth pace in the industry remains in the next few years, by 2027, Russia will need 220,000 to 250,000 tonnes of feed to meet the demand of the salmon sector alone, Sokolov said, expressing confidence that the issue will be largely solved already by 2027, while in 2030 the country will meet up to 95 per cent of demand on the salmon feed market. 

Rosrybolovstvo has not disclosed anything about the new production targets for the Russian fish farming industry. In April 2023, Sergey Dankvert, head of the Russian veterinary watchdog Rosselhoznadzor, expressed confidence that the industry’s production potential was enough to secure one million tonnes of annual production. He assumed that this level could be achieved in the foreseeable future.