Russia’s seafood sector is complex, but as with any seafood producing nation, two key factors frequently come into play in shaping the production landscape: politics and finance.
In 2015 Russia’s seafood sector was heavily influenced by its ban on imports of fish and seafood from the EU, United States, Canada, Norway and Australia, imposed in August 2014, and from Iceland, imposed in August 2015, as well as the low rate of the Russian ruble against the euro and US dollar.
These sanctions led to a sharp decrease in Russian seafood imports which fell almost 39 percent from January through October 2015, with import value plummeting by almost half to $981 million (€878.8
