Goods from the sea. Buying and selling of fish at the exchange house will be profitable to both getters and processers.

In the near future the Association of developers, manufacturers and suppliers of fish-processing systems and equipment (ADMSFSE) and the Far Eastern Federal University are planning to sign an agreement on cooperation and mutual activity. The agreement anticipates the opening of the International Fishing Commodity Exchange in the Primorsky region. In addition, the Far Eastern Federal University will start to train and retrain the experts for the new structure.

ADMSFSE president and one of the project originators Sergey Lelyukhin are sure: despite the fact that the idea of ​​the Fishing Exchange is not new, it’s the right moment to implement it. Most of the fishermen and producers finally realized the benefits of such sales and are ready to participate in the auction. In addition, economically speaking, the Exchange, being created in Primorye Fishing cluster will take place of the "trade flows regulator."

Expert: The Fishing cluster will allow the FEFD economy to get to a new level.

There will be a fish exchange house in Primorye.

Sergey Egorovich, why do we need such a regulator? Throughout the years after the entry into the market, there certainly have emerged close and mutually beneficial relations between fishermen and manufacturers, so they do not need to look for each other.

Sergei Lelyukhin: Yes, they have. But the processors of Russian raw materials are not always in our country, and this does not help develop the industry. Fish and seafood exports from the Far East, which produces most of the Russian MBR (marine biological resources) are growing year by year. At the end of 2013 it reached 1.3 million tons - half of all official catch. Processing of Russian raw fish involves foreign companies. Additional jobs and product added value are created abroad, not here.

Due to the raw material orientation of the Fisheries Industry (FI) the Far East multiplier to the added "cost" of fish (the ratio of the total added value created by FI companies to the value of the primary biological resources caught) is at three to seven times lower than in other countries in Asia Pacific.

Not long ago I visited two large fish-processing companies of the Chinese city of Dalian. Russian companies are the main suppliers of raw materials for them. More than 100 thousand of our fish and seafood goes through one of these plants. As a result, the Chinese factory produces "crab meat", which is sold in our market! Other manufactured products, such as pollock fillets, goes to the foreign market - the EU, Africa, Asia-Pacific, including our country.

Thus there is a paradoxical situation: the fish resources caught in the Russian economic zone, do not always meet the needs of the domestic market, and this impedes the development of fish processing in our country.

It is obvious that the fishermen first and foremost think of their self-interest rather than how to provide the processers with raw materials...

Sergei Lelyukhin: the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation is worried about the situation with the fish processing. It has prepared amendments to the Tax Code, providing that fishermen supplying raw materials to the foreign companies will pay 100 percent of the rate for the use of biological resources. Today everyone pays 15 percent regardless of where they send the catch. The task of the Ministry of Agriculture is to relieve the Russian fish processing from shortage of raw materials and make Russia an exporter of processed products with added value.

Let's imagine that the amendments came into effect and fishermen, having abandoned the usual markets, are looking for what to do with the catch. How will the fish exchange help them?

Sergei Lelyukhin: Mutual interests of both fishermen and fish processers will meet here.

For now it's the foreign companies that process Russian raw fish. Additional jobs and product added value are created abroad, not here.

Today, most of the products are sold to intermediaries through direct contracts. In the longer chain there can be several of them. As a result, when the humpback reaches the last wholesaler, its price increases two to three times.

The exchange will be the only intermediary, and, according to our estimates, the final price will be lower by half than today.

The current system makes fishermen dependent. Companies engaged in the MBR production, do not often have enough working capital to prepare for the fishing season and it is not always possible to get a bank loan. They ask intermediaries and take their money in advance against future product supply.

When a company starts trading futures, the situation changes - it gets its money from the sale of contracts for future delivery and can use it on its own without having any obligations.

Here’s another point. Brokers at the exchange sell all the goods, and fishermen can redeem broker place and sell their products on their own. This gives them the ability to control prices.

On the other hand, companies that have available funds and are willing to invest them in fish processing business should have a guaranteed access to the fish resources. At the stock exchange they can be purchased at any time.

Will our fish exchange be similar to the existing ones in Asia-Pacific?

Sergei Lelyukhin: While working on the concept of the project, we realized that we would have to create something unique. Yes, the so-called fish exchanges exist in many countries, but on closer inspection it turns out that they cannot be classified as the trade or as the stock ones. They are rather a kind of market that sells a small wholesale or the distribution mechanisms of seized resources rigidly controlled by the government.

In our opinion, the stock exchange is created as a venue where they sell not only caught fish, but also futures – contracts for not yet caught fish, and only on condition of voluntariness, based on prevailing market conditions. We international experience into account here, which shows that the futures trade in other sectors of raw materials is gaining momentum with every year.

The exchange is supposed to conduct bidding in two sections - the derivatives market for the trading of futures and commodity market, where the real goods – caught and brought to a certain place – are sold. Therefore, the exchange complex will have to include an administrative area, and also - necessarily - refrigerating capacity because one of the prerequisites for trading at the stock exchange is the place of primary delivery.

Many different issues appear in the practical implementation - from financial ones to human resources...

Sergei Lelyukhin: Rosselhozbank is willing to invest in the preparation of the project - it is a good financial support. Yes, we will need some funds from the participants, but now we are talking about the creation of the exchange by means of individual members of our association. The Exchange will be established as a joint stock company, and according to the law, to get stock exchange license, the company's equity should be at least 100 million rubles.

Construction of the complex bumps into the allocation of land – here we are looking forward to the support and understanding from the regional administration. And in dealing with personnel issues we put hopes on the Far Eastern Federal University, which has a huge scientific potential. There are not enough professional traders in the Far East. We will need experts who can assess the quality of the goods offered for sale.

According to my estimates, the fish market de jure will appear in Primorye in 2014, and de facto - in 2015. When a fishing industry cluster is created in the region, this tool will be one of its elements.

Source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta