There have been many dates of infamy that will always be remembered throughout the vast and sorted annals of history.
Right now, whether February 24, 2022, will be included on the infamous and dubious list of “I remember what I was doing on that day,” has yet to be determined.
We are of course referring to the winter day when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his armed forces to invade neighbouring Ukraine — leading to the largest attack on a European country since the Second World War.
Almost immediately following the unprovoked invasion and rightly so, members of the international community applied harsh economic sanctions on Russia with the aim of disabling its economy and putting added pressure on Putin and his regime. These sanctions included cutting off Russian banks from international monetary exchanges, freezing assets and of course, boycotting Russian exports, including seafood. And Russia has always exported a lot of seafood globally.
According to Russia’s own Federal Agency for Fishery, the world’s largest country is one of the five global leaders in fishing and one of the 10 largest suppliers of fish to the world market. The Russian fishing industry reportedly harvests about five million tonnes of fish and invertebrates annually and exports 2.15 million tonnes of that total to international buyers.
So, with crushing international seafood sanctions from markets such as Canada, the United States and the European Union, one would assume the Russian fishing industry would be in turmoil. However, if you believe the state-backed Federal Agency for Fishery, in 2022, the same year as the Ukraine invasion, Russia exported 4.5 per cent more seafood than the previous year.
How can this be?
The Russian seafood industry, with the help of their “friends,” have found significant loopholes in the plethora of international sanctions. For example, in the U.S., while the sanction order prohibits the import of unaltered seafood from Russia, it does not block Russian seafood that has undergone significant transformation in another country, such as China.
And the problem is not isolated to the U.S. Most jurisdictions do not have the tools necessary to trace all Russian seafood exports entering their markets via third-party international processors.
So, is the Russian seafood industry actually suffering underneath the weight of the internationally imposed economic sanctions? That remains to be seen.
In fact, the Russian fishing industry was just on display at the Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia, held September 27–29 in St. Petersburg.
Given the obvious geopolitical elephant in the room, one would assume such a trade show would be sparsely attended at best. Think again.
The Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia labels itself as the main event of the fishery, aquaculture and processing industries of Russia. This year, despite being in held in a country ostracized by the majority of the globe, more than 350 companies from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Turkey, South Africa, China, South Korea, Oman, Finland and Bangladesh, to name a few, participated.
If you read the trade show’s promotional material, you would never say this is a country involved in a full-scale war.
“This year, Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia focuses primarily on sustainable development of the fishery complex and its integration in today’s multipolar trade system. It also serves as the central aquaculture event for the Eurasian Economic Union. Currently, developing countries of EAEU, as well as Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, demonstrate high cooperation potential as reflected in the exhibition, the business program and certainly in the international delegations attending the event.”
You have to give the Russians credit — they are the absolute masters of spin. While the war is never alluded to directly, if you read between the lines, the show organizers have an interesting way of explaining the current goings on in Ukraine, the global backlash and how it is related to the seafood industry.
“The Russian fishery industry has risen to the challenges of the last few years: within just a short time, it used alternative logistics chains to re-orientate its manufacturing infrastructure and fish product deliveries toward new markets. At the same time, Russian companies value long-term ties with their European colleagues and partners and are in no hurry to break them. Today’s ambitious goal of the Russian fishery complex is to transition to a qualitatively new development level, an economy of supply that shapes demand in addition to accounting for it in response to the market situation. To achieve it, industry needs a large-scale expansion of the fishing fleet and processing facilities, modernization of the logistics infrastructure and introduction of cutting-edge technologies. It also requires digitalization and scientific support.”
Does this sound like an industry that is suffering from crippling sanctions and has been beaten down and broken to you?
Of course, on the flipside, like everything in Russia these days, the overall economic narrative coming out of the former U.S.S.R. is closely controlled by the state, so one can never fully appreciate the impact the international sanctions are having on the fishing industry. And this subjective information dissemination is no different now than it was decades ago when countless, rusting, cockroach-ridden Soviet trawlers would pause their pillaging off the Grand Banks to resupply in St. John’s harbour.
But, however you look at it, the notion that the Russian seafood industry is down and out might be as distorted as this quote from nonother than Putin himself — “Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights and freedoms.”
