Despite formal sanctions and private commitments to shift away from Russian seafood imports in the wake of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Russia's cod and pollock exports to the European Union rose by double digits last year.

Statistics released by the All-Russian Association of Fisheries (VARPE), based on official Eurostat data, show Russia's seafood exports to the bloc rose 18.7 percent by volume to 198,800 metric tons from 2021.

More surprisingly, however, was the value of those imports, which jumped 57.6