Over the three days of the world's largest industry exhibition that took place in Brussels, Russian fish producers have held more than 1,000 business meetings that have resulted in agreements to enter into about 50 export contracts. European and African countries have become the main buyers of the Russian fish products.
The 27th Seafood Expo Global & Seafood Processing Global was held in Belgium in early May. The Russian Federation was represented by 23 national fishing companies sharing a combined national booth with a total area exceeding 700 square meters. The Russian exposition has become the largest in terms of the number of exhibitors for all 4 years of participation.
Russia's combined national booth in Brussels was arranged by Expo Solutions Group, a full service company, under the auspices of the Federal Agency Russia for Fisheries.
Building upon the European trend for finished and semi-finished products, Russian producers have submitted deeply processed fish products such as red salmon and whitefish fillets, preserves and canned products to the judgment of the European community. For instance, ANTEY has brought to Brussels its new sardine-ivasi product line branded as Russian Fish Factory. Fillet, slices in oil and salt fillings and cold-smoked fish sparked unprecedented interest on the part of visitors.
In addition to processed fish products, the booth's show windows exhibited raw materials such as flounder, cod, haddock, sardine and salmon, all frozen on ships.
The produce of the Russian seas was presented by enterprises operating in the Russian Far Eastern and North-Western regions. Such enterprises included key industry players and traditional participants of the Brussels Exhibition such as Norebo, NBAMR, Russian Fishery Company, YKRK, Antey, F.E.S.T., Sirius, and Wild catch. Tymlatsky Fish Factory, North-Kurilsk Base of Seiner Fleet, Defa, Collective farm fishery by V.I. Lenin and Collective farm fishery by V.I. Kalinin made their debut at the Exhibition.
For the first time ever, the Exhibition in Brussels hosted a number of fishery enterprises representing the Primorsky Territory and Murmansk Region under the promotion of regional export support centers such as Barentsmoreprodukt, Agama, Variant, Arctic Holding, Kamchatskiy Meridian, Pacific Silord and Asia Pacific Fishing Company as well as three Kaliningrad based companies Maxifish, Rybtehcentr and Baltmechcom patronized by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The latter three companies exhibited their Russian fishing equipment and components to the European public for the first time. The debut of the Kaliningrad producers has turned out to be more than successful with more than a hundred business meetings resulting in agreements to execute eight export contracts for the delivery of equipment to Morocco, Luxembourg and Germany and export fish fillets, dried fish and canned fish products to Germany, the Netherlands, France, Romania and Switzerland for a total price of about one million euros.
Sirius, a Far Eastern company, emphasized high demand for salmon products. As a result, a number of contracts for the sale of pink salmon, chum, sockeye, flounder, cod and caviar for more than $5 million have been executed.
Defa has agreed to supply shrimp to Germany and Austria for a total of about $330 thousand. Agama, a Murmansk based company, has executed a $30 million worth of short-term and long-term contracts providing for the delivery of various types of cod fillets.
"Judging by the exhibited domestic products, mood and plans of our enterprises to upgrade their production capacities by constructing greenfield coastal factories and modern vessels, the goal of having foreign fish and sea products trading operations boosted from the current $5.2 billion to $8.5 billion by 2025 is quite achievable," Petr Savchuk, a Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, said to remind of the objectives set for the industry.
He opened the Russian exposition shoulder to shoulder with the Ambassador of Russia to Belgium Alexander Tokovinin and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov.
As part of the business program associated with the operation of the booth, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) jointly with Expo Solutions Group held a business meeting between Russian fishermen and European buyers being MSC partners interested in the products manufactured by environmentally responsible fisheries, in particular, Pacific salmon. The participants of the event holding MSC certificates such as Delta, Narody Severa, Ustkamchatryba and Tymlatsky Fish Factory shared their compliance certification experience and their European colleagues outlined market opportunities for certified fish products, the demand for which is increasingly growing.
During a round table, the analysts of Fishery Strategy Consulting, a consulting firm, encouraged fishermen to consider the countries of Latin America, whose latent potential was discovered while analyzing the consumer markets of these countries, for export operations. In the future, such countries as Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and others may become buyers of Russian fish.
"The promotion of export operations is a top priority for us and a keynote idea behind all events we organize. And while our new venue, the International Fish Congress in Vladivostok, and Qingdao Exhibition are focused on the Asia-Pacific region, Seafood Expo Global hosted by Brussels is the only resource for building foreign trade relations with Europe," Ivan Fetisov, the General Director of Expo Solutions Group, noted. "We are very happy that the Exhibition has been successful for fishermen and believe that we all have heavily contributed into the achievement of the goal set by the government to increase the financial return on fish exports."
