Fresh fish might be exported to Russia from the Faroe Islands, Turkey and Tunisia, chief of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery Ilya Shestakov said on Tuesday.
“The Faroe islands can export chilled salmon, though not in the volumes we imported from Norway,” he told Rossiya 24 TV channel. Turkey and Tunisia could supply other chilled fishes, he added.
Fresh fish such as Mullus barbatus ponticus and Black Sea turbot would be supplied to Russian shops from Crimea, said Shestakov. The Atlantic herring fell under the sanctions but the volumes could be substituted with the Pacific herring, the official added.
Russian was self-reliant in terms of fish supplies but its own resources were insufficient to cover the entire assortment, including some Mediterranean types of fish unavailable geographically, he said. “These will be imported from those countries that did not fall under the sanctions”, and there were plenty of them, said Shestakov.
The agency and the Russian veterinary and phytosanitary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor worked to check as soon as possible the potential suppliers from Southeast Asia, Chile and the Faroes that could export salmon, and Greenland, Turkey and Morocco, said Shestakov.
The Russian government earlier imposed a one-year ban on fish, meat, fruit and vegetable and dairy import from Australia, Canada, the EU, US and Norway.