The fishing sector
in Russia changed a lot last month. As the former
chairman of the Committee for Fishery in Primorsky
Krai, could you give us your personal point of view
on the fishing sector and the future of the sector?
From 1993 to 1998 the fishing production was over
1.5 million tons, we had about 56 fishing companies,
but since 1998, due to the decrease in the fishing
production, at the moment we fish about 500 000
tons. Today we have more than 276 companies registered
in the region, 100 % private businesses, only 2
companies have more than 5 000 employees. Approximately
10 companies have from 1 000 to 5 000 employees,
all the rest companies have from about 200 to 400
employees. We have new companies with less than
10 people. I would like to highlight that the year
2002 was a very positive year, a year of stabilization
in the fishing sector. In the year 2002 fish quotas
fell down by 38%. As for the fish volume and profit,
we fell only by 9%.
The financial result was better than we had expected.
It is connected with quota distribution and deeper
fish processing. Today we have 435 vessels that
are distributed among 100 companies, about 40 000
employees, we have about 5 very heavy boats of 30
000 tons, and many other vessels of 15 000 tons.
Only 2 or 3 companies are bankrupt at the moment,
we are following the situation and try to do our
best to help these companies. The process of breaking
big companies into a lot of small ones is over,
and I think that we will soon see the contrary process:
small companies will be united into large companies.
Today we are changing our techniques, we are trying
to work much closer with the fishing companies,
with reproducing marine resources, and producing
marine cultures. We have about 26 companies, which
grow sea kale, we hope to increase this production
next year. We are growing mussels and urchin. We
have good projects to produce other kinds of sea
products. In April we are waiting for a French delegation,
maybe for future collaboration in fish producing
and processing. Today we are trying to expand in
the international market; we try to find new international
collaboration. We used to work only with China and
Japan, today we are also working with many others
countries such as France, USA, Australia and others.
The administration of Primorye is today looking
to new plans and projects. Could you describe more
in details this information?
We have a few directions of projects and plans.
The first, as I already said before, is about the
diversification of the fishing companies, i.e. from
small companies to large ones. Then we are working
to develop our seafood and increase the production
and the different products, we are also working
on different scientific programs, regarding salmons
breeding and trying to develop the production of
this fish in Russia, one of our main projects is
also connected with deep fishing processing. Today
we have 36 fish processing plants, we are planning
to reduce these companies to 10 companies. As we
do not have enough financial resources we are planning
to work on the quality of the products in the region.
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The technical condition
of many fishing ships is unsatisfactory; and has
reached 60 percent deterioration. How is the Administration
working to develop this issue?
As for the ship deterioration, a normal ship can
work without any problems more than 30 years, but
inside the ship is very different, that is why we
have to change many things every 5-8 years in order
to meet our customers' requirements. We have the
most advance and modern fish processing equipment
in the world. Our equipment is made in Norway, Germany,
USA but not in China. If you go to any fish shop
in the city, you will see that we use all kinds
of containers, produce all kinds of fish production,
we may say that we have the same level as in Europe.
We have already talked about plans, figures,
production, but we didn't talk about the main customers
of the fish production of Primorsky Krai. What are
the main destinations?
61% of the fish production is meant for the domestic
market, the rest is going outside the country. Our
main customers are China, Japan, Korea, Singapore,
North America, and Europe. These are basically the
main routes of export for the fish products of the
region.
You were Chairman of the Committee Fishery for
Primorky Krai. Today you are the first Vice-Governor
of the Krai Administration. Could you tell our readers
about your professional background?
I was born on Sakhalin, graduated from the Far East
Fishery University in 1974 as Engineer Navigator.
Until 1983 I worked for one of the biggest fish
processing plants in the country, since 1983 I took
different positions in the Communist authorities.
From 1990 to 1993 I was Deputy Mayor of the city
of Vladivostok, from 1993 to 2000 I was Vice-governor,
and for a small period of time I worked as General
Director of a fishing company in the region. Since
last May year I have been working in this Administration.
I was trained in Japan but I also was studying twice
in the States. I have visited all the countries
around the world, of course all countries involved
in fishing business.
As my last question I would like to ask about
your biggest achievement with one year in the Administration
of Primorsky Krai?
I think that we managed to impose the fishery and
due to this many other regions now respect Primorsky
Krai. I managed to take back all the respect positions
we used to have before. One of the biggest achievements
was to have President Putin in the region interested
a lot in the fishing sector. He said that now he
understood how much we had done to develop the region
to a very high level.
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