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Senegal fish companies seek access to Customs Union market amid Russian trawler incident

Pelagic fish such as mackerel, horse mackerel, bonito and others will be supplied to Russia from Africa

MOSCOW, January 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Veterinary services of Senegal (where the Russian trawler “Oleg Naidenov” was detained) and other African countries, particularly Uganda, have asked the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) to get access for fish processing plants to the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) market, aide to the Rosselkhoznadzor head Alexei Alexeyenko told Itar-Tass.

The Russian service is ready to discuss the issue with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Alexeyenko said.

“We’ll conduct an inspection because we need fish. Normal business-like relations will facilitate the improvement of the situation in fish capture areas,” the aide said.

He said such step would make it possible to improve the situation on the fish market and reduce monopoly pressure from certain countries, particularly from Norway.

At present, Norway has considerably increased supplies to Russia. However, veterinary services do not allow Russia to inspect the existing facilities.

In 2013, Russia ranks first among the countries, which import Norwegian fish. Export of Norwegian fish to Russia increased by 10% and reached $1.06 billion. Since January 1, 2014 Rosselkhoznadzor has imposed the ban on import of Norwegian fish, besides salmon, to Russia for security reasons.

Pelagic fish such as mackerel, horse mackerel, bonito and others will be supplied to Russia from Africa. However, there are no data on the volume of import.

Earlier, head of the Federal Fisheries Agency Andrei Krainiy said processing plants in Kaliningrad worked on Africa’s raw material.

Meanwhile, Alexeyenko said Russia lacked its own resources. “We depend on import much,” he said.