Russian companies are being denied European Union approval numbers required to sell product caught or produced on new state-of-the-art vessels into the bloc, yet another complication resulting from Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine last year.
In recent years, spurred by a massive government program offering valuable catch quotas in exchange for new vessel construction, many major Russian companies, including Russian Fishery Company (RFC), Norebo and Okeanrybflot, have embarked on fleet renewal programs.
The vessels were were supposed to give American pollock producers a run for their money, producing high-quality, single-frozen products, as opposed to headed and gutted (H&G) product that is shipped to China, thawed and refrozen into what is called "twice frozen" or "double frozen" blocks.
