Russia has completed the first pollock “A” season – the largest fishing season in the country – with more than 1 million metric tons (MT) of fish harvested.
The Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) said the total catch is 6 percent ahead of the same season last year. Across multiple fisheries, the organization said the all-Russian catch has been 2 percent faster than 2023 and is showing positive dynamics.
That faster rate, Rosrybolovstvo said, is largely thanks to production in the Far East, where the total catch across multiple species has reached 1.32 million MT.
According to the Russian Association of Pollock Harvesters (ADM), fishermen caught 830,000 MT of pollock in the Sea of Okhotsk during the A season, 3.2 percent more than last year. The total catch of pollock throughout the Far Eastern basin, it said, has reached 1.05 million MT – up 8.6 percent over 2023.
“At the height of the fishing season, up to 115 trawl fishing vessels were operating in the fishery, and the daily catch of the expedition exceeded 10,000 MT of pollock,” ADM President Alexey Buglak said in a release.
In the Sea of Okhotsk, fishermen managed to reach 87 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC). Buglak said given favorable fishing conditions, the fishery should be able to reach 98 to 99 percent of the TAC.
“Thus, the pollock catch in the Sea of Okhotsk could be at the level of 950,000 MT,” he said.
According to Rosrybolovstvo, as of 8 April, cold storage facilities in Russia’s Primorsky territory were at 32 percent capacity, containing 36,000 MT of fresh frozen fish products. Approaching the terminal were an additional 40 vessels with 85,800 MT of products – which contained 61,600 MT of pollock.
The ADM said that pollock production has been “stabilized” in terms of which portions are going toward fillets and minced meat due to “uncertainty in foreign markets.” The total output of both products so far has been roughly 60,000 MT.
The country’s production of surimi products, meanwhile, increased by almost 40 percent to 30,000 MT.
