The first day of the Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo Russia 2021 saw a series of events dedicated to science and education, logistics and export, sector development, design and building of fishing vessels, as well as food security.
Science and education: young people and trawlers
Questions of science and professional education for ensuring sustainable development of the sector were discussed at the roundtable “Will Generation Z Start Catching Fish? Problems of Education and Science” with the participation of Vasily Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, rector of Kaliningrad State Technical University, Vladimir Volkogon, Chairman of the Council of Educational Organisations, and representatives of the scientific and expert community, and fishery enterprises.
“Experts estimate that each fisherman automatically creates at least 6–8 extra jobs, and the ratio will rise even more once the investment quota programme is implemented”, Vasily Sokolov noted. “In this respect, training of personnel capable of providing for rational use of the raw material resources of Russian fisheries, operation of fishing vessels, the work of coastal enterprises and the industry's organisations is a strategic priority for the Federal Agency for Fisheries educational complex”.
Moreover, in connection with the rise in investment in the industry and growing demand for specialists, combined with the ageing of staff, in the next 5–10 years, the fishing industry will face a shortage of qualified personnel on production and processing vessels. This material explains how the experts intend to resolve this problem.
On this same day, head of Rosrybolovstvo Ilya Shestakov handed out the awards to the winners and prize winners of the selection competition for the final of the national championship WorldSkills Russia.
In 2020, on the initiative of Rosrybolovstvo, the specialisations “Coastal fishing”, “Growing fish seed and commercial fish” and “Processing of water bioresources” were added to the WorldSkills Russia list of competencies.
The head of Rosrybolovstvo noted that this was a first experience of participation by young sector specialists in the competitions and that the young people demonstrated a high standard of training, professionalism, persistence and leadership qualities.
From October 2020 through February 2021, the regional stages of the competitions took place in the Kaliningrad, Moscow, and Astrakhan Regions, St. Petersburg, the Kamchatka and Primoriye Territories. To find out in which skills the students competed and who won, see here.
Logistics and export: the industry is ready for systemic solution
Questions of logistics and exports were touched on within the scope of several events on the first day’s business programme:
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technologies for equipping multi-temperature warehouses and automation of warehouse logistics for fish-processing enterprises were discussed at the roundtable organised by COMITAS together with Ingenium LLC;
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leading producers of refrigeration equipment held a roundtable on the latest refrigeration solutions for fishery industry vessels and enterprises.
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questions of fish and seafood exports, in consideration of the current restrictions, the procedure and prospects for expanding the geographical coverage and diversifying supplies were discussed in detail at an open meeting of participants in the forum and exhibition with representatives of Rosselkhoznadzor:
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a conference on the continuous refrigeration chain for ensuring safekeeping of food, including fish, products and an open meeting at which the possibilities for transporting fish and seafood in refrigerated wagons from the Far East was discussed in detail were held by the Association of Food Sector Organisations (ASORPS).
Ship-building: record figures
The state, pressing issues and development prospects of Russian shipbuilding were considered by the participants in the conference “Design and building of PC class fishing vessels. Open dialogue with the industry”, held by the Russian Marine Navigation Register.
Head of the directorate for planning and marketing, Russian Marine Navigation Register (RS), Georgiy Bedrik noted that all the changes in the industry affect shipbuilding in one way or another so the RS responds promptly to such demands in order to ensure quality building of various types of vessels.
Currently, 232 vessels of the class are being built at domestic and foreign wharves. This is a record: for the first time, the gap between the Russian Federation and leading shipbuilding countries has been minimised, Bedrik stated. “Moreover, the biggest proportion of vessels under construction consists precisely of fishing vessels – 79 units. So we focus great attention on our fishing customers”, he stressed. “We are prepared for a further rise in orders from the fishing industry”.
For more detail on the work of the Marine Register on introducing amendments into the rules of the Russian Marine Register and new international requirements, see the special material below.
Food security: from information to effective actions
On 8 September, events were organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (the FAO): a section called “Information about the fisheries and aquaculture market as an effective tool for assessing business opportunities”. As Director of the FAO Office for Liaison with the Russian Federation Oleg Kobyakov stated, 37% of fisheries and aquaculture production are being traded internationally. “The logistics are stretched and complex, subject to external fluctuations, as we realised during the pandemic”, he explained. “So, information on demand, trade, catch forecasts, stocks and distribution channels is crucial for the industry to prosper.”
FAO expert talk about such vital information resources as FISHINFONetwork, GLOBEFISH, INFOFISH and EUROFISH:
David Vivas Eugui, Legal Officer at UNCTAD (Note: the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is the UN General Assembly's key trade and development body), noted that the pandemic had changed the production and supply chains, that they were seeing a whole range of new restrictive, non-tariff measures. “It is important to understand that they are being introduced more and more frequently. And almost 100% of these measures relate to sanitary restrictions, which, of course, creates barriers to trade”, the expert noted. In terms of regulation, he said, fisheries and aquaculture were now on a par with the pharmaceuticals industry.
On the same day, on the side-lines of the forum Ilya Shestakov and Vladimir Rakhmanin, Deputy Director General of the FAO, regional representative of Europe and Central Asia, discussed spheres and prospects for co-operation.
The head of Rosrybolovstvo noted that Russia attached major significance to co-operation with the FAO in the international exchange of know-how, experience and technologies in the fishery sphere, use of the opportunities provided by the FAO for innovative development of Russia’s fishery complex. “We are geared toward further fruitful work and more active participation in the activities of the FAO in general, and are interested in making use of the organisation’s potential and authority in the interests of developing our country’s fisheries and aquaculture, as well as global international co-operation”, said Ilya Shestakov.
Vladimir Rakhmanin noted the high standard of the Forum and Exhibition’s organisation. “I am really impressed. Movement, dynamics, content and people’s positivity. Congratulations on this, it is very pleasant to observe”, he noted.