Crab auctions organized by Rosrybolovstvo (Russian Federal Fisheries Agency) will bring RUB 142 bullion to the state budget, says press center of the Agency. The scope of financing provided by Sberbank to companies participating in the auction reached RUB 89.18 billion ($1.4 billion). 35 lots of crab quotas were sold between October 7 and October 15, 2019 in the course of e-auction on the sale of crab production quotas implying investment obligations on construction on construction of ships at Russian shipyards. Thus, 35 crab catching ships are to built under the programme.
According to Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank BoD, applications for $3 billion have been submitted by fishing companies during the auction. Sberbank will finance its clients to the amount exceeding $1.4 billion.
Sberbank has been working with the companies of the fishing industry for more than 15 years. The share of the bank in this market exceeds 70% with total portfolio of the bank to exceed RUB 200 billion by the end of 2019.
According to Rosrybolovstvo, 43 fishing ships and 25 fish processing plans are being built with the application of the investment quota mechanism. Investments are to exceed RUB 187 billion. With shipbuilding projects involving investment quotas, fishing fleet of the Far East will be renovated by 25-30%, that of the Northern basin – by about to 65%.
Besides, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosrybolovstvo (Russian Federal Fisheries Agency) are developing a new support measure to provide a targeted subsidy on construction of small-size fishing ships. The instrument intended to support low-return facilities and rarely produced bioresources not covered by investment quota mechanism will commence working in 2020.