MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. Digitization of aquaculture in Russia will make it possible to support an inflow of investments and an increase in the production output, the All-Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises said.
While serious success in digitization is observed in the fish catching sector, which directly influences the reduction of business costs, including the transition to electronic fisheries permits and electronic reporting, then everything "is in the same old fashion" in the sector of aquaculture, President of the association German Zverev said.
"The current reporting system, which anticipates among other things the compulsory presentation of original statements of release/withdrawal of commercial fish and seafood and submission of original reports to several controlling agencies at once, in addition to the Federal Agency for Fisheries, along with technical drawbacks of the Akvavostok service, hamper investments in the fisheries sector, appearance of new players and the increase of commercial aquaculture volume output as a consequence," Zverev said.
"We will initiate the effort of creating an interdepartmental working group to consider matters of aquaculture digitalization," he added.
According to the association, aquaculture production in Russia totaled 380,600 metric tons in 2024, which is 5% less than 2023. "This is the first decline of production over the past decade. Aquaculture businesses, particularly dealing with shellfish and echinoderms breeding, repeatedly paid attention to the fact that excessive regulation of the sector is a barrier for investments and appearance of new players, which prevent full realization of the production potential," the association added.