Weekly Review of the most important events of the fishing industry of the Russian Federation of 03.11.2014 - 09.11.2014

 Over the past week, in the fishing industry there are the following significant events:

 According to preliminary data of the Federal State Statistics Service, the volume of deliveries of fish, fish products and seafood from the Russian Federation (including exports) for the first 9 months amounted to 1 million 305.5 thousand tons. This is 12.3% less than the same period last year. According to the public relations center of Federal Agency for Fishery, in the structure of exports 87.6% took frozen fish, 6.1% - fillets and other fish meat, 3.5% - crustaceans and molluscs, 1.2% - prepared or preserved fish products. Total imports of fishery products to the Russian Federation for 9 months increased by 1.8% compared with the same period last year and reached 653.1 thousand tonnes. The structure of imports 51.4% took frozen fish, 12% -fresh or chilled, 11,4% - fillets and other fish meat, 13.9% - Prepared or preserved fish products, 10.3% - crustaceans and mollusks.

 The Federal Fisheries Agency is transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture of the bill "On Amending the Federal Law" On fishing and preservation of aquatic biological resources". It is expected that the document will be considered at the site of the working group. Key provisions of the bill:

1. Contracts on assignment of shares of industrial and coastal quota offered to enter into a term of 25 years.
2. It provided a new definition of coastal fishing - "the business of exploration and production (catch) of aquatic biological resources, transportation, storage and offloading catches FBG or fish and other products from them in certain organs of state power of subjects of the Russian coastal place of delivery on the territory of these subjects." Thus, excluded from the definition of transshipment of catches.
3. Coastal quota, according to the bill, will be distributed among the subjects of the Federation on the proposal of the highest official of the region in an advantageous manner and in accordance with the procedure established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
4. It is suggested to change the rate of development of industrial or coastal quotas, failure to which for two consecutive years may be grounds for involuntary termination of mining rights FBG. Now it is at least 50% limits, and can be 70%.
5. Suggested not to issue permits for the extraction of water bioresources since 2019 in the case of a ship built outside the territory of the Customs Union by foreign shipbuilding organizations or held overhaul and (or) modernization outside the customs territory of the Customs Union, but has not been formalized in relation to customs.

 Ministry of Agriculture has prepared the latest edition of the draft law on veterinary medicine. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the paper describes the development of the Ministry with the requirements of the veterinary rules and procedures provided veterinary-sanitary measures, provides a legal basis the activities of federal bodies of state authority of the country in the field of veterinary medicine. Also it provides private activities of veterinary experts; establishment in the field of veterinary federal state information analysis system that provides the provision of individuals and legal entities of public services, including in electronic form.

 Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On the Procedure for Foreign Investment in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security "and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation."
 A number of amendments concerns the fishing industry:

• In the Federal Law "On the Procedure for Foreign Investment in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security" recycling in the Russian Federation territory of aquatic biological resources caught by "strategic" business entity envisaged as a liability to the foreign investor.
• The Federal Law of 20 December 2004 № 166 stipulates that legal entities registered in Russia and are controlled by a foreign investor is not entitled to production of FBG. An exception is the case when the control is set in the manner prescribed by federal law of April 29, 2008 № 57.
• New items will now appear in the list of grounds for involuntary termination of mining rights: if a person is under control of a foreign investor in violation of the 57th Law, and if the "person who has a right to harvest (catch) of aquatic biological resources is under control of a foreign investor until such person specified rights." Forced termination in these cases will be carried out in the manner prescribed by the Government.
• Chapter 2 of the Fisheries Act is supplemented by the article "Signs of a legal entity under the control of foreign investors».

The amendments - on November 4, 2014 № 343 - were officially published on 5 November and will come into force 30 days after that day.

Compared with the previous week, the following changes in prices for fish products(according to the sitewww.fishnotice.com). Table 1 shows the prices of fish products to Vladivostok, as the city is called the most convenient point for the calculation of the price in other regions of the country. All the prices in other regions, in this case would be calculated on the basis of - price in Vladivostok + road to the calculated region

Table 1. Changes in prices for fishery products for 3.11.2014-9.11.2014

          At the end of the week, significant changes in the fishing industry did not happen. The Federal Law "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On the Procedure for Foreign Investment in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security "and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" states that legal entities under the control of a foreign investor violation the requirements of the 57th Federal Law shall not be entitled to mine FBG, also shown signs that allow to establish the fact of the legal entity under the control of a foreign investor, however, the detection mechanism of such companies is unknown. It is not specified how agencies should engage in tracking companies controlled by foreign investors. Thus, at the time of adoption of the law, it does not provide a mechanism for its effective implementation. Changes in prices for fish products in the Primorsky Territory are negligible and are oscillatory.

The review prepared:

Yuri Levchenko

Department of Customer JSC "Far Eastern Fish Exchange"

Phone / fax: +7 (423) 2279913

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