OREANDA-NEWS  Fishermen of the Russian Federation caught 1.96 million tons of pollock in 2023, which was a record figure for the last 25 years and 3% higher than the catch of 2022, according to the Association of Pollock Miners (ADM).

The total production volume of pollock products increased by 7.4%, to 1 million 88 thousand tons.

According to the press release, the share of pollock in the national catch has reached almost 36%, it remains the main fishing resource of the Russian Federation. Last year, 275 vessels, including 13 foreign ones, worked in the pollock fishery. Traditionally, the largest volume of catch was provided by the large-tonnage fleet: 77 large processor trawlers produced over 71% of the total volume.

"A significant trend of the year was the increase in the efficiency of the mining fleet: many vessels showed high annual catches. So, the average pollock catch on the ship was 7.1 thousand tons, - said the president of the ADM Alexey Buglak, whose words are quoted in a press release. - Large-tonnage vessels, both Russian and foreign-built, showed better results: from 19 thousand to 58.1 thousand tons of pollock per ship."

According to him, the new world record for the annual catch of aquatic biological resources, including pollock, was shown by the MRKT Peter I (Sofko LLC), the first place in catching pollock is the BMRT Vladimir Limanov (Vostokrybprom LLC). Vessels of the companies Gidrostroy, Tralflot, Okeanrybflot and Norebo also entered the top 10 in pollock fishing.

According to Buglak, about 12% (230 thousand tons) of the catch was processed at onshore plants, the rest - at sea. At the same time, the dynamics of output in 2023 differed significantly from that recorded a year earlier. "Last year turned out to be difficult for our sector: the sanctions pressure created uncertainty in the sales markets, and the stagnation of final demand put pressure on the price. Enterprises were forced to adjust production plans and reduce the production of products that are less in demand in both domestic and foreign markets, primarily fillets," explained the head of the ADM.

In 2023, about 32% of the pollock catch was processed into deep-processing products. At the same time, the production of fillets decreased by 24%, to 95.3 thousand tons, and minced meat, which is a co-product in its production, by 39%, to 17.2 thousand tons. Fishermen were able to partially compensate for the "failure" with an increase in surimi - output increased 2.5 times, to 48 thousand tons. As a result, the total volume of production of deep processing products decreased by 13%, to 173 thousand tons. At the same time, the output of pollock without a head increased by 8%, to 720 thousand tons, and undivided pollock by 30%, to 199 thousand tons.

As Buglak recalled, an advertising campaign for the Far Eastern Pollock brand was launched in September last year. "We expect that this will double the domestic consumption of Russia's main fishing resource, up to 35-38% of the catch," Buglak calculates.