Red fish is the emblem of sadness: the reasons for the wild rise in prices are named

Prices for red fish in Russia have skyrocketed. She, experts calculated, has risen in price this year more than all products. And it’s not evening yet, almost a month and a half before the New Year. We have learned the causes of this “phenomenon”.

We go to the fish store, look at the prices. Pink salmon without a head (b / g) 425 rubles a kilogram, Kamchatka chum salmon without a head 650, Kamchatka coho salmon with a head 670, sockeye salmon without a head 985 rubles …

– This is not meat, – says one customer, – If you cut off the head, tail, fins, remove the bones and entrails, 60 percent will remain. And it already costs a thousand rubles, like marbled beef. And I want fish…

Where do these prices come from? One of the widespread versions is due to a significant reduction in imports from Chile and the Faroe Islands. Because, they say, the prices for red fish went berserk, because the domestic business simply “lost its shores” and is tearing at exorbitant prices, although Russians’ incomes have been falling for many years now.

To find out all the “inside and out” about the unprecedented rise in prices for pink salmon and other types of red fish, we ask for a comment from Alexander Fomin, Executive Director of the Fish Association of Production and Trade Enterprises of the Fish Industry

– Who raises prices for red fish: fishermen or trade?

– The question is not easy. The salmon market consists of two parts. The first salmon and trout is, first of all, aquaculture and import. Which today is limited for known reasons, shipments have dropped sharply. Now deliveries are slightly increasing from friendly countries, but this is logistics and a rise in price. Since the beginning of the year, prices for salmon and trout have increased by about 2.5 times.

The second component of the market is pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon. They could keep prices down. However, Putin this year turned out to be unsuccessful, it can be considered a failure. Less than 300 thousand tons were caught, although a year ago it was 500 thousand tons. Everything is simply banal. Demand exceeds supply, and when there is a shortage, prices always rise.

The fishermen have nowhere to go. The expenses were incurred, but the fish were not caught, respectively, they must compensate for their losses. Further down the chain. The railway annually increases the tariffs for transportation, maintenance in warehouses also traditionally rises in price – electricity and freon. Retail, as always, takes its toll.

– How much does it increase the price tags?

– I think, by 20-25 percent. Trade has its own logic. They keep the prices of essential goods, try not to raise them. But they compensate for the losses at the expense of extra charges for delicious expensive products.

It is unlikely that the situation will change quickly. Aquaculture, although developing in our country, is not so active. And red fish is highly dependent on natural conditions.

– What is the cost of catching these fish?

– Costs have remained virtually unchanged compared to last year. But if in 2021 a million rubles was caught, I say conditionally, a ton of fish, now it is 500 kilograms. The cost has doubled.

– Why is the “harvest” so weak?

– All this is quite predictable. Scientists have long said that there is a decline in the number of salmon. This is a long-term trend towards a decrease in the stocks of these fish species. Perhaps the specific reason lies in global climate change. The shift of the ecosystem affects the change in fish stocks. In the regions of Kamchatka, Magadan, Chukotka, it is still there. And more southern water areas are occupied by other heat-loving species. For example, stocks of mackerel have sharply increased in those latitudes.

We need to understand these phenomena and take some real action. But this is a separate issue.

– Will the rise in prices for pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon and other red fish continue until the end of the year? Or is there nowhere else to go?

– Most likely, it will continue. Here the main trend is set by pink salmon, it makes up about 70% of the catch, and it accounted for the largest drop in the fishing season. Chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon and others are not so affected by natural processes. If a year ago you could buy frozen pink salmon for 200-250 rubles a kilogram, now it costs 350 or even 400 rubles. She has risen in price by 1.5 times.

In addition, pink salmon is an important raw material for the processing industry; smoked and salted products are prepared from it. In a word, it will rise in price.

By the New Year, everyone wants to decorate the festive table with beautiful cuts of red fish, respectively, retail chains will not miss this moment either and will raise the price even more.

– And theoretically, their reduction can be expected?

– Only theoretically, by the middle of summer, when a new season begins. But, as I said, fish stocks are declining, and demand will only grow.