August 1, 2012

Russia will continue to be a fast expanding market for fish and seafood imports as the country imports US$2.6 billion worth of these products, a 19% rise compare to 2010.

Market analysts report that variety and quality of seafood are increasingly important to Russian consumers. Supermarkets are now stocking a wider variety of seafood than ever, expanding their selections beyond traditional Russian fishes such as herring, mackerel and salmon. Consumers can now purchase squid, prawns, live scallops, snails, oysters and more.

Market experts say that the annual increase in the consumption of frozen and fresh fish, shelled shrimps (peeled) and shrimps in the shell, whole calamari, calamari fillet, calamari rings, mussels and mixed seafood is estimated to be 20% to 30% in the coming year. The annual consumption of more up-market products such as black tiger prawns, royal freshwater shrimps, lobsters, crayfish, scallops, octopus and crab is growing at a rate 40% to 50% annually.

Due to Russia's accession to the WTO, nearly all categories of fish and seafood will see a reduction in tariffs, although reductions may not occur immediately with accession.

Frozen, fresh and chilled fish (excluding filets) will see reduced tariffs between 2013 and 2017. The pre-accession applied bound rate is currently 10%; the final bound rate is expected to fall between 3% to 8%, depending on species. For salmon and trout fillets, the final bound rate is expected to be 4% by 2016, and for cod fillets, to 5% by 2015.

Tariffs on frozen hake and pollock fillets will fall to 7% by 2014. For crustaceans, the tariff on whole lobsters will fall from 10% to only 5% with this change occurring by 2015 for frozen and by 2016 for live lobsters. For non-whole frozen lobsters the tariff will fall from 10% to 8% by 2013.

For frozen shrimps and prawns, the current tariff will fall to between 5% and 3% by 2014-2015 depending on variety. For frozen crabs, it will fall from 10% to 5% by 2015-2016 depending on variety. For mollusks, the pre-accession applied/post-accession bound rate will fall to 7% by 2015 for oysters, for scallops to 6% by 2015 and for mussels to 5% or 6% by 2016-2017 depending on variety.