Fishermen demanded from the government to stop lobbying the business of Gleb Frank and Gennady Timchenko

The principle of replacing historical quotas for catching crab at auctions will lead to bankruptcies of many fishing companies in Russia. But it will allow the Russian fishing company Gleb Frank to gain a foothold in this niche.
12.09.2018
Vedomosti
Origin source
President of the Pacific Investment Group Sergei Darkin at the Eastern Economic Forum proposed not to enter auctions for the production of crabs. "From the abolition of the historical principle [the allocation of quotas for the crab catch] fishermen are losing, the capitalization of companies has fallen. Maybe leave the trend for the growth of the market by 10% and do not change anything? "- he said.

Ten-year catch quotas were approved in 2008, they take into account the history of fishing for the previous period. In November 2017, it became known about a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to replace the historical principle with auctions. The sender was not specified, but market participants associated him with the Russian fishing company Gleb Frank (he owns 89.95% of the shares in the company, according to the USRLE). Frank is the son-in-law of billionaire Gennady Timchenko. The Russian fishery company entered the market relatively recently, spending a record 10 billion rubles in crab quotas in May 2017.

As a result, in late August, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed to auction 50% of the quotas previously distributed on a historical basis. This should happen in 2018-2019. The allocation of quotas will be handled by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosrybolovstvo.

 Crab producers, however, are against the auctions. "Today we are taking a step forward and two steps back. A step forward is investment in the industry, two steps back are auctions, "said the president of the All-Russian Association of Fisheries Enterprises, Entrepreneurs and Exporters Herman Zverev. According to him, this is a road to the quagmire, and the decisions taken by the government will switch "business opportunities to the plane of survival". His opinion is shared by colleagues. "We take a healthy body, cut off his legs and arms and say - develop," - indignant president of the Crab Extractors Association, Alexander Duplyakov. "We do not know what to do," says Aleksey Bayguzhin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Far Eastern Fisherman Company.

In August, the fishermen renegotiated their quota agreements for the next 15 years. They already paid $ 2 billion for quotas in 2001-2017, previously reported German Zverev.

"Since 2016 we have been building fish processing enterprises on the island of Shikotan. We started construction, when some rules of work were defined. But today they are changing, and we do not understand whether to build factories or go to auctions, "continues Bayguzhin. According to him, the company has already invested 3 billion rubles. of the planned 6 billion. Now the question arises with the financing - banks began to be more wary, Bayguzhin said. "Banks began to think whether to give a loan or not, the fisherman will have a quota or not," Darkin explains.

The regulator took a passive position, Duplyakov assured: the government decided to introduce auctions, but their terms have not been determined yet. Market participants live in anticipation, he resents. Dmitry Pashov, president of the company Moneron (the largest crab mining company), asks to listen to the opinion of the fishing community: "We have thousands of people working, we can not divorce the industry from people, from the periphery."

 The deputy head of Rosrybolovstva Petr Savchuk made it clear that nobody is going to refuse to sell the idea with auctions: "The most transparent way is offered - auction. There are things that we must do. " According to him, the crab business is super-profitable, and 96% of this production is exported. "We must stop living chaotically and withdraw assets. The tax return of the industry is about 8%, while the average for industry in the country is 12%, "Savchuk said. In his opinion, for fishermen rules of 15 years must be worked out; today the terms of the auctions are discussed.

Zverev points out that if one looks at foreign experience, the law on fishing, for example, in the United States has been unchanged since 1974, and in Japan since 1948. According to him, the stability of the fishing legislation is an integral part of the investment market. 131 billion rubles were pledged to the construction of the fishing industry. investments, including 18 coastal plants - 9 in the North and the Far East, according to Rosrybolovstva.

"To be honest, we can not do anything about this," Darkin admits. - We are already living in a new trend. The question is how to minimize risks and develop further. I hope, we will be heard. "

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