The Russian Crab Group of Companies has increased its crab catch in the first half of 2024 by 40 percent and is preparing to receive one of the crab catcher-processing vessels it commissioned as part of Russia’s investment quota auctions.
Russian Crab Group said it has produced 9,500 metric tons (MT) of crab so far in 2024. The company attributed the 40 percent increase in catch to the new quotas it obtained via an investment quota auction in 2023.
"In 2024, the company will be able to catch 18,000 [MT] of crab. With the new quotas, our production plan has grown by 50 percent compared to the volumes of previous years,” Russian Crab Group CEO Yulia Yurova said. “The increase is significant, but the company is working at a good pace.”
Russia ran a second round of investment quota auctions in 2023, selling quota to a number of different companies with an additional requirement that those companies invest in either new vessels or new processing.
The company’s catching and processing capacity will be enhanced soon, as the company takes delivery of the crab-fishing vessel Captain Dudnik from the Oka shipyard in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The vessel is one of several that Russan Crab Group is building as part of the first stage of the investment quota program.
The company announced the vessel was in transit on 26 July.
“By now, most of the route has been successfully completed, and the vessel is expected to arrive in St. Petersburg at the beginning of August,” Russian Crab Group Director of Crab Fleet Construction Andrey Sklyuev said.
The Captain Dudnik is just one of several vessels Russian Crab Group ordered. The company launched two other crab vessels, the Captain Egorov and the Captain Manzholin, in early June, and the company signed contracts for six more crab vessels in April 2024.
Russian Crab Group said with its existing fishing capacity, it supplied its customers with ...