The State Council Presidium working group is headed by Acting Governor of Sakhalin Region Oleg Kozhemyako, who spoke of the tasks facing working group members as they draft the report for the State Council meeting.
Taking part in the meeting was Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev, Deputy Minister and head of the Federal Agency for Fishery Ilya Shestakov, regional governors, representatives of federal executive bodies, scientists and experts.
The meeting participants noted the sector’s low efficiency. Production rates have been going down steadily since 2011: while in 2011 there was an 11.7 percent growth compared to the previous year, in 2012 that growth slowed down to 2.7 percent, and in 2013 there was a decline of 2.7 percent. Obviously, the crisis of 2014 only made matters worse. The number of organisations involved in fishing and fish farming and their employees has been falling every year, and the financial returns in the industry are deteriorating. Thus, as of January 1, 2014 almost 92 percent of the vessels have exceeded their normal service life.
The meeting also considered reasons for the fall in the industry’s performance. Special attention was given to the low level of action on Presidential instructions regarding the development of fisheries sector.
The main points of the report will be discussed at the second meeting of the working group in July 2015.