Russia Cuts Back Fish Imports
Rosselkhoznadzor, the federal agricultural products inspection agency, has banned imports of fish and fish products from Chile. Vietnam, Japan, China, Uruguay, Argentina and Korea are already on the list of fish exporters non grata in Russia. Vietnam produces 80 percent of the raw materials for “crab” sticks, China is the main supplier of Pollack filet and Chile is the only alternative supplier of salmon to Norway. Thus all of those products can be expected to rise significantly in price, if not disappear from store shelves.
The ban on Chilean fish imports goes into effect on July 1. The first ban, on Vietnamese imports, was imposed on May 25 of this year. The ban formally applies only to unattested enterprises in those countries, but since Rosselkhoznadzor has only begun the attestation process in Vietnam, the bans in practice have a blanket application.
Chief purchasing manager at OOO Orgkhimtekhnologia Tatyana Kuzmina said that the bans cover more than half of all table fish and seafood and 80 percent of all fish filets. According to the Federal Customs Service, Russia imported 980,000 tons of fish and fish products last year, worth $1.1 billion.
Since rumors of import limitations have been afoot for a long time, most importers were able to prepare for it. April imports of fish jumped from $65.8 million to $131.2 million. Therefore, the effects of the ban will only be felt in a few months.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 04, 2007
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Photo: Pavel Smertin
