March 9, 2016

Challenges facing Russian aquaculture highlighted at Aquaculture 2016

During the international conference "Aquaculture 2016" that took place during the ProdExpo food show in Moscow from February 8 to 11, 2016, speakers identified problems restricting growth of the aquaculture sector in Russia.

Vasiliy Sokolov, deputy head of the Federal Fisheries Agency (FFA), cited the lack of aqua feed as one of the problems. In 2015, production of aqua feed in Russia was estimated at about 100,000 tonnes, a shortfall from the demand for feed which stood at 250,000 tonnes. According to the objectives stated in the federal programme "On Development of the Fisheries Sector," demand for feed will increase to between 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes by 2020.

Some speakers also identified ineffective feeding techniques as a major problem.

Low labour efficiency on aquaculture farms was cited by the Ministry of Agriculture as another problem. It estimated annual productivity at 1.0 tonne/ha, two to threefold lower than average worldwide productivity in aquaculture.

Challenges faced by the Russian aquaculture regulatory framework due to inconsistency in the rules developed at the federal level and the implementation at the regional levels, was cited as a fourth key problem.

Source: www.fis.com