Yesterday, at the European-Asian Exchange, the Ministry of Economic Development sold fishing products

Yesterday, at the European-Asian Exchange, the Ministry of Economic Development sold quotas for pollock and North Okhotsk herring to fishing companies. As it turned out, among fishermen, pollock has increased in price this year.
Already at the first fish auction in 2002, which, however, was held on December 27 of last year, the Ministry of Economic Development and the State Fisheries Committee earned 1.8 billion rubles into the federal budget, which is twice as much as planned. But this was not so surprising: the fishermen were buying crab. But yesterday's auction at an already baited place showed that the Russian fisherman does not live by crab alone. Yesterday we traded pollock. The demand for it turned out to be no lower than for crab. Indicative was the record number of submitted applications accepted from 111 Russian companies - their number was four times higher than the number of lots. The results of the auction exceeded the wildest expectations of the organizers. Last year, it was considered lucky if pollock was sold at starting prices. At best, fishermen bought lots at prices that averaged twice the starting price. Yesterday, from the very beginning of the auction, it became clear that the auction organizers had clearly played it safe, putting up for sale catch quotas of only 181.2 thousand tons of pollock and herring, valued at 630.7 million rubles. Fishermen began to buy the first lots at prices four to five times higher than the starting ones. For example, a lot worth 1.8 million rubles was sold for 8.1 million. Then the “bite” intensified - lots were already sold for 9-9.7 million rubles.
As a result, the catch for the Ministry of Economic Development turned out to be very successful. Thanks to pollock and herring, the budget received 2.92 billion rubles, which is almost five times more than the expected amount.
True, such fishing was not liked by quota buyers. One of the bidders noted: “A situation arises where we are practically unable to make a profit from the purchased lots. There is only one way out - to catch more than the quotas purchased at the auction.” According to him, today's average price per ton of pollock is $600, while the profitability threshold is at $300.
Representatives of fishing companies explained such a high demand for pollock by the need to “just work and fish.” However, it can be assumed that the chairman of the State Fisheries Committee, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, helped to sell the fish so successfully, who recently announced that the crab catch, which has always brought the companies the greatest profit, in the Far Eastern basin will be halved this year. This statement by the Chairman of the State Fisheries Committee, apparently, convinced fishermen to appreciate pollock and herring.

KONSTANTIN Kommersant-Anokhin

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 3 dated January 12, 2002, p. 4

Themes:

Fishing

Fishermen appreciated pollock and herring