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Of course, Tarasenko does not mean to bring the USSR back. All he wants is to restore the inseparable link connecting the fishery with on-shore enterprises, which has been totally lost over the post-Soviet years. But this “all” is not a simple task to do, in fact.
There is more to it than just slashing the present 20-plus vessel control bodies and improving the Murmansk harbour’s economy. The first thing to do is to recover the essential contact between state structures such as the harbour authorities or fishery research institutes, and commercial enterprises (fishing and fish-processing companies).
One of Mr Tarasenko’s concerns was the readiness of the trawler “Tsimlyansk” to start fresh cod deliveries to Murmansk. The ship, earlier belonging to Sevrybpromrazvedka, and now owned by “National Fish Resources”, will be delivering its catches to NortVerde fish processor. Besides, as “Tsimlyansk” is planning to work on scientific quota with PINRO (Murmansk Fisheries Research Institute) specialists onboard, it actually means that three sides are now involved in cooperation.
Tarasenko seemed satisfied: “the link” he was talking about is starting to work again. Now it’s up to the port authorities to make it complete.
“Tsimlyansk” is recently back from repairs in Kirkenes harbour. The first fish cargo is due to Murmansk as soon as next week, the vessels’ Master Vasily Paltsev explained. “About 40 tonnes perhaps … We can’t predict the catch amount with more certainty so far”, he said. Captain Paltsev has been working on “Tsimlyansk” for 3 years, delivering the catches to Norwegian enterprises. He’s reluctant to make hasty conclusions about the changes underway. “We’ll see later”, is all he concludes so far.
“We have been waiting for this to happen a long time”, NortVerde’s General Director Sergey Vinogradov expands on the topic. “Our fish processing factory was set up 5 years back. We knew that sooner or later cod deliveries would go to Russia as well. No market for cod has yet been created in Murmansk. Now we are about making the first step towards it. We keep in mind the time when the factory was idle having no raw material to process. Such vessels as “Tsimlyansk” will help solve this problem. Hoping for that, I’m getting more people hired now, making certain investments… The klippfish production we are in is complicated in financial terms, and having deliveries on a regular basis would be just great,” Vinogradov adds.
NortVerde is a Russian-Portuguese klippfish-making joint venture. With the lack of awareness about this product in the Russian market and the price which is too high for local buyers, NortVerde’s klippfish is now sold solely abroad.
From now on, the trawler “Tsimlyansk” will be specially attached to NortVerde, getting around 45-50 tonnes of cod 3 times per month until the year-end.
“One of our main objectives today is to get the Murmansk port revived,” Andrey Tarasenko continues. “We are not blaming the port authorities for the present situation. However, we must try to prove that a successful cooperation between state and non-state structures is possible. That’s what the Murmansk region’s governor Yuri Yevdokimov and the State Fisheries Committee’s Chairman Yevgeny Nazdratenko agreed on. “National Fish Resources” has given 6 vessels to put this experiment into practice. Even if we incur some losses at the start, the outcome will still be worth of the costs involved”.
True, it is difficult to disagree with Mr Tarasenko. While the number of fish processors in Moscow region is going up every year, it looks absurd that Russian fish catches make a long way to Russia’s capital, first being delivered to Norway and then imported back to Russia. “It’s good that your governor is into the situation, fighting to create more jobs in the region”, Tarasenko comments. “The two officials, Yevdokimov and Nazdratenko seem to understand each other well.”
As Mr Tarasenko explained, a plan for the Murmansk port’s reconstruction drafted jointly by Yuri Yevdokimov and Yevgeny Nazdratenko will start working soon. “The loss-making port has to become profitable and self-sustained again”, head of "National Fish Resources" added.
Mr Tarasenko’s visit schedule included also one to the Murmansk shipyard, another bust enterprise. The vessel “Smolensk”, also owned by “National Fish Resources”, has been here under repair and equipping. The vessel was successfully prepared to comply with the requirements of the Registrar of shipping.
Speaking about the quality of the ship-repairs performed, Boris Zhibov, “National Fish Resources” official advisor on research vessels and equipment, replied: “We can always get the work properly done by the shipyard’s specialists. The main thing is to provide a continuous control of the repairs as well as timely financing.”
As a matter of fact, providing that “continuous control” of vessel repairs and re-equipment is Mr Zhibov’s duty according to his contract with “National Fish Resources”. His experience within the area is proven by working with four research vessels, “Persey-3”, “Persey-4,” “Nerey” and “Vega”. These four trawlers take part in most survey programs arranged by the joint Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission as well as conduct surveys on redfish, cod, saithe, haddock and others species, thus meeting the demand of the PINRO research institute.
Mr Zhibov deems it vitally important to dispense research functions back to vessels of the fishing reconnaissance service. Ten years ago, as Sebrybpromrazvedka began falling apart, its research duties went automatically to small companies like Vega, Smena, Virma, Asasifish and others.
However, the much-needed long-term searching surveys seem to have sunk into oblivion.
The state has to fill up this gap until it is too late. Or some day it will be paying money to the firms that will decide to undertake these lost functions.
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