Russia overtakes US in supplies of raw materials for crab sticks to Asia – Kommersant

Against the backdrop of rising consumer economies in a number of Asian countries, the United States began to give way to Russia in sales of surimi, a raw material used to make crab sticks. This is reported RBC with reference to the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

According to the document, in 2023, the price and demand for pollock surimi was “sluggish”. FAO estimates that surimi sales in the European and Asian markets fell by almost 10% in the first quarter, pushing down producers’ margins.

The FAO cited a reduction in consumer spending on non-essential products, which is causing the demand for surimi to suffer. This led to the fact that part of the buyers reoriented to cheaper Russian products.

“Prices for surimi are falling and the Russians can produce it at a lower cost than the Americans. Buyers in Asia don’t seem to care who they buy from, as long as the price is low and the quality is acceptable,” the report says.

According to the Federal Agency for Fishery, in 2022 Russia harvested 1.9 million tons of pollock, the United States – 1.3 million tons. Last year, for the first time since the early 2000s, Russian fishermen managed to overtake the United States in pollock fillet production: domestic production increased by 16.8% to 139,000 tons.

As Kommersant found out, pollock and herring producers are asking for subsidies from the budget for the transportation of their products from the Far East to the center of the country. According to various estimates, this will require 500-700 million rubles, but companies expect that the measure will reduce retail prices for fish in the regions by 10%. The market is pessimistic about the prospects for benefits due to the budget deficit and the need to export huge stocks of salmon after a successful fishing season.

Details – in the material “Kommersant” “Pollack homesickness”.

Laura Keffer