"The Life of Ukrainians at the price of crab and salmon": after 2022 the fish business of the Russian Federation blossomed - the media

But they do not work at full capacity," Agia Zagrebelsk, head of the National Anti -Corruption Agency of the Government of Ukraine, said in an interview with reporters. The Russian fisheries industry was only partially blocked by Washington and insignificant by the European Union, which continues to import Russian seafood for $ 1 billion. "Are the lives of several hundred Ukrainians or salmon worth the lives?" - The question of Zagrebelsk.

Since February 2022, the EU has approved 13 sanctions against the Russian Federation, but they do not apply to most of the products. The Russian fishing industry - worth billions of dollars - continued to fill the fish markets and restaurants in Europe and the USA. The United States included Russian seafood in March 2022. At the end of last year, additional prohibition measures on seafood, processed into another product in a third country, appeared.

New sanctions are aimed at closing these loopholes. Russia could not export seafood directly to the United States, so the goods were sent by ships for processing to South Korea or China. According to Stephanie March, the heads of the American Association of Marine Recycling, Russian fish falls into the EU and the US under other brands. The Medsen reported to the US Congress that the funds from the export of Russian fish were directly on the financing of war.

In 2023, Russian export duties on fish and $ 3. 97 billion from auctions from the distribution of quotas for catching pollock and crabs went to support the Russian troops. "Most US consumers do not support the war in Ukraine," said Sally Josell, director of the Environmental Safety Program of Stimson Center. According to her, US residents would feel very embarrassed if they knew that in fish sticks or fish sandwiches they eat for lunch, there is Russian pollock.

Despite the sanctions, it is difficult to guarantee that the fish will not fall into the markets of Europe or the US. The origin of seafood is not always possible to track. Representatives of the Environmental Justice Foundation have stated that many EU countries have very little checked by seafood imports. Thus, imports are essentially not regulated and illegally and silently enters the EU markets.

With regard to the system used in the US, Josell noted that mandatory fishing licenses that show the origin of fish are just PDF files that are easy to manipulate. According to her, although the United States has been monitoring the illegal production of seafood as part of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program monitoring program, only 13 species are checked, and there are no some Russian seafood. In particular, pollock and halibut.

This means that even in the US, where Russian seafood is banned, fish in restaurants or supermarkets can support the Russian economy. The GUS Pastur, President of the Fisheries Association and Fish Tradelers (AIPCE), noted that the EU imports about 740,000 tons of pollock, one third comes directly from Russia, another third of the EU receives from China, and 95% of Chinese imports - Russian origin.

According to the Russian media, in 2022 Russia increased the export of fish to the EU by 18% and by another 13% - 2023, which became a historical maximum. Before getting into the western markets, many Russian catches stop in the South Korean port of Pusan, one of the largest in the world. After the start of a full -scale war, the port observed a significant increase in the supply of Russian seafood.

For comparison, in 2021, Russian vessels were not brought to Pusan ​​Halibus - a relatively expensive white fish, which is caught in the Barents Sea. But in 2023, the port has already imported more than 11 thousand tons of this fish. Some of the fish are in the South Korean market, but in the same year, the exports of Halibus from Korea to the US and China have grown significantly.

In 2023, South Korea imported 213,000 tons of seafood from the Russian Federation compared to 439,000 in 2022 and 185,000 in 2020. Korean exports of fish to Europe and the US has increased sharply. From 2021 to 2022, exports of frozen herring to the United States increased by 99%, and exports of fillets to Germany - by 541%. Recall that the United States does not impose serious sanctions against the Russian Federation, fearing for its economy.