Fisheries allowed the cost of fishing to rise by 40% due to fuel duties

The All-Russian Association of Fishing Industry (VARPE) has appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture with a request to amend the legislation, which will exempt marine fuel from increasing coefficients when calculating export duties. According to fishing industry experts, the establishment of a coefficient will lead to an increase in the cost of fishing by an average of 40%. The head of VARPE, German Zverev, sent a corresponding letter on October 20 to the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev.

In the letter, excerpts from which are given RBC, emphasizes the need to amend the government decree of October 5, which established the rates of export customs duties on certain types of petroleum products. Now, an increasing factor of 50 thousand rubles must be applied to the export of marine fuel from Russia. per ton.

“The introduction of a duty will lead to an increase in the cost of fishing and, as a consequence, an increase in the cost of production of almost all fish products produced by Russian fishing companies,” the letter says.

According to the association, marine fuel accounts for up to 30% of the cost of fish products. “The establishment of a duty will entail an increase in the share of fuel in the cost of production of fish products to 44% and an increase in the cost of fish products by an average of 29%,” noted the VARPE. The most significant increase in costs will affect the fishing of socially significant and affordable fish species – herring, sardines, blue whiting and capelin.

VARPE also indicated that the duty on marine fuel will make the Russian fishery dependent on ship bunkering services from foreign companies. Before the introduction of the duty in September, the cost of fuel for Russian bunkerers was about $565–600 per ton. In the same month, companies from South Korea sold fuel 15% more expensive – at $622-685 per ton.

But since October 5, domestic marine fuel has doubled in price, as a result, Russian bunkering has become 65% more expensive than South Korean bunkering, and has also become more expensive than Japanese and Chinese bunkering. Now, according to the head of VARPE, fishermen from remote areas are forced to seek the services of foreign bunkering companies from China, South Korea, Japan and Norway in order to go to a Russian port for bunkering.

Previously, the export of marine fuel with a mass fraction of sulfur content of no more than 1% was not subject to customs duty. However, in October, by its decree, the government included this type of fuel in the list of petroleum products, the export duty on which increased from 20 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. to combat gray exports. We are talking about situations where companies that are not manufacturers export fuel purchased on the domestic market, having received a damper from the state.

Read more about how the state is looking for measures to control fuel prices in the Kommersant article. “The market has switched to manual control”.