Russia is continuing to prepare for a second round of crab quota auctions, issuing a new decree revising regulations governing the second stage of the program.
The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries began preparing for a second round of the crab quota auctions after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law changing the system for allocating quotas in December 2022. The original round of auctions, initiated in 2019, netted the Russian government RUB 142.4 billion (then USD 2.22 billion, EUR 2.01 billion).
The new auctions will cover the remaining 50 percent of crab quotas, and Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Head Ilya Shestakov called the new program a “priority task” for the department in 2023.
“Now the regulatory legal framework is being adopted, [and] we plan to hold crab auctions for the main types of objects this year,” Shestakov said in early June.
Since that time, the Russian government has begun to make changes to the original auction plans, including releasing a new list of construction projects that qualify companies for additional quota. Under the program, companies must invest in infrastructure – either a new fishing vessel or a processing facility – to earn quota for a particular species of crab. Species covered under the new program include opilio, spiny crab, hairy crab, king crab, red snow crab, and bairdi snow crab.
The Russian government issued a decree on 28 June amending rules set by the recent legislation, revising the cost of quota lots and setting up procedures to monitor compliance with the program's investment requirements.
Photo courtesy of the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries
