The head of Inarctic spoke about the advantage of Russian salmon over Chilean

Russian restaurateurs have increased demand for domestic salmon, said Ilya Sosnov, general director of the largest producer of aquaculture salmon and trout, Inarktika. According to him, catering enterprises are willing to pay a premium for Russian salmon compared to Chilean salmon, which is also widely represented on the domestic market.

Since 2014, in Russia, by presidential decree, an embargo was introduced on products from the European Union, USA, Australia, Canada and Norway, as a result, the Faroe Islands began to supply the most expensive salmon to the Russian market. After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Faroese companies “largely left voluntarily and did not want to supply to the Russian market,” notes Ilya Sosnov in an interview RBC.

To date, Chile remains the largest import supplier on the Russian market. According to Mr. Sosnov, in 2022 there were interruptions in the supply of fish due to logistics and problems with payments, but now the situation has stabilized. “Now Chile supplies approximately the same volumes as before – about 40-50 thousand tons. But Chilean fish arrives frozen – from the point of view of consumer properties, ours is better, because it arrives chilled and is not defrosted. Therefore, the market pays a premium for our fish relative to Chilean fish,” explains Sosnov.

Inarktika is the largest producer of aquaculture salmon on the Russian market. In 2022, the company’s share, according to its own estimates, accounted for 25 thousand tons, or 21% of the Russian salmon market. In January-September 2023, sales volume of Inarctika products amounted to 20.3 thousand tons, which is 6% more year-on-year. Revenue for this period reached 20 billion rubles, which is 10% more than in the first nine months of last year.

Milena Kostereva