Russia’s largest pollock quota holder, Russian Fishery, kicked of the construction of a new pollock processing plant at Nadezhdinskaya Priority Development Territory, close to Vladivostok on Dec. 14.

The project is being implemented by Russian Pollock, a joint venture of the Russian Fishery Company and DV Invest.

The first stage of the new processing facility with a production capacity of more than 100 metric tons of finished products per day is planned to be built by October 2021. The main products of the plant will be fillets and minced pollock.

Construction of the second stage after 2021 will allow the plant to increase the production capacity by 20 percent and produce deep-processed products, including in the “ready for cooking” and “ready for use” categories both for the Russian market and for export to countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

“We have completed all the preparatory work and are fully ready for the beginning of the construction work," said Ivan Osadchy, general director at the Russian Pollock.

The new pollock processing plant will use frozen-at-sea (FAS) pollock as its main raw material, as well as coastal-caught pollock, to produce single-frozen pollock products.

In addition, the new facility will be able to process other species, mainly herring.

Once the factory is built, Russian Fishery will be provided with additional pollock and herring quotas of around 14,500 metric tons in accordance with the provisions of the state investment quota program.

Total investment into the project is estimated at a level of $12 million (€10.6 million) to $15 million (€13.2 million).

The construction of a new pollock processing plant is considered as the next step in the implementation of Russian Fishery's ambitious plans to sharply increase its share of value-added products.

According to the previous statements by Russian Fishery, the company plans to use up to 30-40 percent of its pollock catch for fillet production and raise the share of value-added products up to 95 percent within the next five to six years.

Among other projects, targeting the company’s ambitious strategy there is the construction of seven new pollock factory trawlers, which are expected to be commissioned by 2023.

In addition, Russian Fishery is planning to build a new onshore plant for processing cod, haddock and other fish species in Murmansk.

"Investment into a value-added onshore processing sector and renewal of the fishing fleet is a cornerstone in the company's development strategy, which meets the RFC’s focus on the entire

value chain for the end consumers," Dmitry Kravchenko, spokesperson for Russian Fishery, told IntraFish previously.

In 2018, Russia launched a large-scale program to modernize its fishery industry through the state investment quota program.

Russia’s federal fishery agency, Rosrybolovstvo, has signed contracts for the construction of more than 20 fish processing factories in the North and the Far East, as well as 33 fishing vessels.

Processor

Russian Fishery kicks off construction of pollock processing plant