Russia is considering imposing a tax in the form of an import duty on trout and salmon in the near future, in an attempt to stimulate domestic production and reduce import dependence.
Currently most of salmon and trout comes to Russia from Norway. According to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, since the beginning of the current year imports of Norwegian salmon reached 245,000 tons, which is 9 percent more than the same period of last year. Currently Russia remains the most valuable export market for Norwegian fish.
At the same time domestic production of trout and salmon in Russia is currently estimated at only 25,000 tonnes per year. According to Sergey Gudkov, the executive director of the Fishery Union of Russia, the majoriuty of local demand is met by the Norwegian side, which is a negative factor for the Russian fishing industry.
According to Gudkov, the main reason for a lack of competitiveness of Russian salmon even in the domestic market is a traditional Russian bureaucracy, which leads to the fact that the supply of fish from Norway takes place faster than from Russia. This leads to the fact that the majority of Russian retailers prefer to buy Norwegian fish, instead of Russian.
In the meantime, representatives of the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency have already supported this initiative. According to the head of Rosrybolovstvo’s PR department Alexander Savelyev, the proposal seems to be useful.
According to him after Russia's WTO accession imports of fish are expected to further increase he said and there is a need to promote the domestic product.
It is planned that the proposal for the impostion of a tax on the imports of salmon to Russia will soon sent for the consideration of the Russian government.