A new agreement for the construction of fishing vessels was signed during the Eastern Economic Forum. This was another example of a large–scale renewal of the fishing fleet - despite sanctions and difficulties in domestic shipbuilding. What is happening is important not only for fishermen and shipyards, but also for the country's food sovereignty in general.
On September 5, the crab ship Sergei Prikhodko sailed on its first voyage. Krabolov left the completed embankment of the shipyard in Rybinsk and began his journey to the home port of Vladivostok. The ship, according to Rosrybolovstvo, was built under the program of investment quotas and crab auctions, that is, the so-called "keel quota" system, designed to create a domestic fishing infrastructure, including the construction of fishing vessels.
"Recently, the mechanism of "keel quotas" ... has made it possible to attract 270 billion rubles in the country as a whole," Ilya Shestakov, head of Rosrybolovstvo, said during the Eastern Economic Forum (WEF). – These are large investments that go not only to the construction of processing plants and the construction of ships. It is also the development of shipbuilding, the development of ship repair, and all the supporting industries for the fishery." What are "keel quotas", how do they help the revival of the domestic fishing fleet and what significance does this have for the country's food sovereignty?
The failure of the fishing industry in the post-Soviet period
By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union had the largest fishing fleet in the world - 120 types of vessels, from giant super trawlers and floating bases for ocean fishing to small fishing seiners and bots engaged in coastal fishing. In the period from 1971 to 1990 alone, more than 2,000 vessels were launched for the fishing fleet. They were built mainly at domestic factories. However, even then engines for a large–tonnage fleet had to be bought abroad - in Finland and Germany.
"The Russian fishing industry grew out of the pants of the Soviet fisheries. The renewal of the fleet at that time was carried out through government lending. Until now, 90% of the catch is provided by the capacities created at that time," Vyacheslav Zilanov, former Deputy Minister of Fisheries of the USSR, Honored Worker of the Fisheries of Russia, tells the newspaper VZGLYAD.
After the collapse of the USSR, the construction of vessels for the fishing industry almost completely stopped. Fishing companies bought battered schooners confiscated from Japanese or Taiwanese poachers at auctions. The fleet was aging rapidly. With a standard operating life of 24 years, today three quarters of Russian mining vessels have been operating for 30-40 years. Their efficiency and productivity are extremely low.
As a result, the total catch of fish and seafood decreased significantly in the 1990s and 2000s. The loss of many traditional fishing areas in the world's oceans has also been added to the problems of the industry. Large-tonnage processor trawlers turned out to be out of work, most of them were written off, sold "on needles".
If you want to catch more, build ships
The industry is in a serious crisis. Prices were rising, and fish and seafood were becoming increasingly inaccessible to the public. In fact, the sanitary standards for the consumption of marine protein and, in general, food security, and therefore the country's food sovereignty, were under threat.
That is why, since the mid-2010s, the state has begun to implement a series of measures to support domestic fisheries and fisheries in general, including shipbuilding.
The Strategy for the development of the shipbuilding industry until 2035 was approved. This document also provided for the renewal of the fleet for the fishing industry: it was planned to build 1,640 fishing vessels by 2035. The overall goal of the strategy was the creation of competitive production and the solution of import substitution issues.
But most importantly, the strategy complemented and expanded the practice of updating the fishing fleet with the help of investment quotas, or, as the fishermen themselves call them, "keel quotas", introduced in 2017. It is the investment quotas that have become the main source of financing for the new Russian fishing fleet in the industry.
In a simplified way, the approach is as follows: based on the state of fish stocks, scientists determine the size of the total allowable catch (ODE), which is divided between companies. Part of the ODE is allocated to those who direct their profits to the construction of new ships at domestic shipyards and coastal fish processing enterprises. This is the quota, the proceeds from the sale of which should be directed to shipbuilding ("keel") and fish processing.
The idea is to use Russian bioresources in the most efficient way. So that when developing each ton of quotas, the country gets the maximum – this is business profit, taxes for the state, and food for people. And, of course, fishermen are actually helping to revive the domestic shipbuilding industry.
"When the decision on investment quotas was made, the fleet was outdated. The average age of the vessels exceeded 30 years.
The fleet was not comfortable for fishermen to work. The volume of deep processing was slightly more than 10% of the catch. And there were no other mechanisms that could stimulate companies' investments in large–scale modernization," Ilya Shestakov explained the reasons for the appearance of "keel quotas".
The system is flawed, but from the point of view of investments in fleet renewal, it works. In 2022, President Vladimir Putin took part in the flag-raising ceremony on three new fishing vessels built under the keel quotas program at domestic shipyards. The Head of State outlined the priority tasks of the industry, directly affecting the issues of economic and technological sovereignty of the country: "This is primarily the development of our own production and resource base and, due to this, the saturation of the domestic market with a wide range of high-quality products… The share of deep-processed goods should also grow significantly, and it would be very desirable for the share of deep-processed goods to be felt in exports.
This means not only additional income, but also that new jobs will be created here in Russia, and not somewhere out there, "over the hill".
In this regard, another important task is to reduce dependence on foreign technologies, components, and services ... We will develop advanced competencies here at home, conduct promising research and development, shorten the path from an idea, a design concept to their implementation in real production ... And, of course, one of our key strategic The priorities are the renewal of the fishing fleet, the construction of modern, well–equipped, reliable vessels for fishing companies."
Among the vessels already introduced under investment quotas, for example, the supertrauler of the ST-192 project "Captain Martynov", on which the flag was solemnly raised on March 1, 2024. "Captain Martynov" is designed to work in remote areas of the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, its ship factory is able to produce up to 80 tons of fillets and 250 tons of fish meal and minced surimi per day (if anyone does not know, it is from it that "crab sticks" are made). The search for fish is carried out using sonar and television devices, and freezers can freeze up to 300 tons of catch per day.
The construction of the ST-192 series of super trawlers according to investment quotas is the largest investment project in the fishing industry, more than 80 billion rubles have been allocated for it. And the Kapitan Martynov is already the fourth vessel of this project transferred to the customer.
We need Russian projects and components
There are difficulties and criticism from fishermen. The deadlines for the construction of new ships are shifting to the right. Fishermen complain about the high prices of Russian shipyards. Therefore, a number of enterprises turn to foreign manufacturers, for example, Chinese ones. "Now, within the framework of ... contracts that were concluded with shipbuilders, 106 ships within the first stage of investment quotas should have already been built. And only 28 were built," Ilya Shestakov admits .
"The country's leadership has set the task of building a modern, competitive Russian fleet," says Oleg Bratukhin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Designer of Russian Pelagic Research Company LLC. – However, today we are building ships that are inferior to their foreign counterparts. A globally competitive vessel and technological sovereignty in the design of ships can only be ensured on the basis of a significant amount of pre-design research and research design at the early stages of project development."
Western sanctions have seriously affected the domestic shipbuilding industry. Many suppliers for ships built at Russian shipyards were located abroad – manufacturers of ship equipment, cables, cranes, propulsion systems, paints, trawls and hundreds of other elements, without which a ship is just a hull. In 2022, as stated in the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), the keel quota program itself was under threat. After all, the import dependence of Russian fishing vessels at that time was estimated at more than 60%. Moreover, the shipbuilders voiced the figure even at 90%.
All this spurred an active program of import substitution of marine equipment already underway at that time.
"Recently, Russian shipbuilding companies have had some difficulties with the supply of foreign equipment and components for civilian vessels. The reason is known: it lies in the failure of foreign partners to fulfill their obligations, and due to purely political, opportunistic, momentary considerations and reasons," the president said on this occasion at a meeting on the shipbuilding industry in August 2022. The Head of State once again emphasized the task of "more actively developing our own competencies in the field of shipbuilding ... to achieve technological sovereignty in critical positions of ship equipment, in the most important production processes and technologies."
Not all fishermen were satisfied with the conditions of the second stage of the "keel quotas" program, which started in 2023. Many fishing companies cannot afford to invest 2-3 billion rubles in the construction of a medium-tonnage trawler. In order to get "keel quotas", small and medium-sized companies must take out a loan at a high interest rate.
There was a counterbalance to this point of view. Maybe a large number of companies in the industry are not needed?
It is easier to work with big players according to the rules established by the state, and they themselves are interested in playing for a long time, investing in fleet renewal. And it is much more profitable for small companies to catch fish in the Russian economic zone and sell it in China or South Korea. In this case, neither the Russian state nor Russian consumers receive practically nothing from Russian bioresources.
As a result, the decision to introduce the second stage of the "keel quotas" program was made . In addition, on February 14, 2024, the government clarified the requirements for the construction of vessels within the framework of investment quotas in fishing. The document stipulates that in the total cost of the project, the cost of goods and services purchased in Russia should be at least 30%. The degree of localization of production has also been clarified: in particular, the hull of the vessel should be formed at Russian shipyards and from domestic materials. The development of all design and technological documents should also be carried out in Russia.
Overcoming the crisis
Today it is already clear that the fishing industry is overcoming the crisis. In 2023, 5.3 million tons of fish of various species were produced in the country. This is a record figure for the last 30 years.
Import substitution of marine equipment and components is also actively developing. It has already been fully completed for military shipbuilding, ships for the Russian Navy are created exclusively from Russian components. As for the civilian fleet, including the fishing fleet, dozens of import substitution projects for marine equipment are being implemented in the country.
The renewal of the fleet and shipbuilding enterprises continues, including thanks to state support. "The President noted that due to the sanctions, the construction of ships is delayed, the restrictions relate primarily to spare parts and equipment. To overcome these difficulties, the government will allocate an additional 3 billion rubles. Subsidies will be provided to Russian organizations to reimburse part of the costs of building ships at the shipyards of the Far Eastern Federal District. In total, 13 crabbers are to come off the stocks here within three years, and these funds will help speed up the launching of 7 of them," Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on May 27.
And most importantly, Russian enterprises continue to order new fishing vessels. In particular, on September 5, it was announced that the largest fishing collective farm named after V. I. Lenin in Kamchatka would invest about 14.5 billion rubles in the construction of two refrigerated vessels and 3.28 billion rubles in two fish processing plants under the keel quotas program. Following the results of the two stages of the program, the entire fishing fleet of the collective farm will be completely updated.
Sergey Ponomarev
