Business program

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Unbroken cold chain for the fishery industry today is more than just a preferred element of transportation and storage – it is a key necessity for delivering high-quality products from the place of catch or production to the tables of final consumers.

The Cold Chain project is a priority initiative for the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation (CCTT) that is championed by the President of the Association of Food Sector Organizations (ASORPS).

The roundtable will examine real-life cases and promising areas for the development of the unbroken cold chain as applicable to the transportation of frozen and chilled fish products.

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In May 2025, a new Strategy for the Development of the Shipbuilding Industry was approved, covering the period up to 2036, with a long-term outlook to 2050. Under the baseline scenario, the strategy envisions the construction of 119 fishing vessels by 2030, 160 vessels between 2031 and 2036, and 465 vessels by 2050.

To implement these plans, the domestic ship equipment manufacturing industry must be prepared to produce the required volume of components and cover the majority of the equipment range.

• Defining new government support measures to facilitate the construction of the fishing fleet
• Including specific ship component production projects in targeted programs (with subsequent funding) based on the new shipbuilding development strategy
• Import substitution in shipbuilding – operating under current localization requirements for Russian-made ship equipment (with priority given to domestic equipment on vessels)
• Identifying solutions to current industry challenges, including the inability to localize certain types of ship equipment

As part of the roundtable, together with representatives of the Department of Shipbuilding and Marine Equipment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the KURS Central Research Institute, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, shipyards, and equipment manufacturers, it is proposed to develop recommendations for inclusion in state programs, as well as to identify the most pressing issues in the field of fishing fleet construction that require funding and increased attention from the Department of Shipbuilding and Marine Equipment.

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Slender share of aquaculture in the total output of the Russian fishery industry and today’s economic realities call upon us to address a series of multidimensional problems.

Limited supply of foreign and the shortage of local high-performance planting stock and effective feed concentrates for the industrial cultivation of high-value fish species restrict the growth of commercial aquaculture production in the country. Conventional methods of ensuring the desired properties of aquaculture have been substantially replaced by artificial selection that relies on genomics techniques. Designing effective recipes and increasing production volumes are of the utmost importance for addressing the issue of feed concentrate supplies.

A sharp decline in the share of imported medicines for aquaculture healthcare has been partially covered by locally developed products, yet complete and comparable replacement is still a long way off.

Different spheres of today’s commercial aquaculture are a growth point for those who design and build advanced high-tech equipment, robotic systems that rely on AI, computer vision and pattern recognition, as well as databases intended to store and process all sorts of information.

We need to customize the best practices of our foreign counterparts, including China, Turkey and other friendly countries, to the Russian settings in those areas where they have made substantial progress.

Topics to discuss:

• Innovative technology and equipment for fish farms: AI and robots
• Aquatic bioresources, planting stock and genomic selection in Russian aquaculture
• Effective Russian feeds for commercial aquaculture
• Health of aquatic bioresources
• Best foreign practices and potential for their application in Russian aquaculture

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Production companies are constantly searching for effective mechanisms to promote fish products. However, most of them currently operate independently and sporadically, without participating in the implementation of a unified marketing strategy in cooperation with government bodies or industry peers.

Participants of the round table will discuss approaches to developing a consolidated strategy for promoting Russian fish and seafood products, as well as best practices in fish marketing.

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Following the withdrawal of foreign design bureaus from the Russian shipbuilding market, the fishing vessel construction sector faced a number of serious challenges. Domestic design bureaus were forced to take over technical support for vessels built under foreign designs. Additionally, the cessation of imported equipment supplies created the need to redesign vessels and find new suppliers, which significantly increased both design and construction timelines.

Due to inconsistencies between some aspects of foreign concept designs and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping's requirements, Russian design bureaus had to resolve these issues independently, rebuilding production processes at shipyards and restructuring equipment supply chains.

The departure of foreign bureaus also left the industry with a vacuum in modern concept designs for fishing vessels – including research and survey vessels (RSVs) for fisheries and fish transport vessels – that are based on domestic or friendly-nation equipment.

Today, in order to fulfill the Strategy for the Development of the Shipbuilding Industry through 2050, which calls for the construction of 2,634 fishing vessels, the Russian design market must develop a standardized range of domestic fishing vessel types. This effort is only possible through close cooperation with customers and domestic equipment manufacturers, along with administrative support and state subsidies. To enhance collaboration between design organizations, material and equipment suppliers, and Russian shipbuilding and ship repair enterprises, the following objectives must be addressed: introduction and advancement of 3D modeling competencies at shipyards; creation of a database of accredited Russian manufacturers of materials and ship components; regulatory and financial incentives to stimulate demand for Russian-made shipbuilding materials and equipment.

Topics to discuss:

• Developing a line of domestic concept designs for fishing vessels that incorporate modern requirements and the experience of former foreign partners
• Establishing collaborative processes with customers for concept development
• Identifying a list of critical ship components and materials, and evaluating the potential for their use in Russian-designed fishing vessels
• Enhancing the competitiveness of Russian fishing vessel designs in terms of quality and lead time
• Pinpointing the most urgent areas in vessel design to include in state programs and subsidy schemes
• Exploring cooperation models between Russian design bureaus

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In 2025, for the first time, the exhibition will host a packaging competition for fish products, aimed at identifying and promoting the best solutions and materials.

All manufacturers and suppliers of fish products in the relevant categories are welcome to participate.

The competition is supported by the Telegram channel “Rybkhoz. All About Fish.”

As a result of the competition, awards will be given not only to the winning fish product manufacturers but also to the packaging producers whose technologies, materials, and equipment were used in production.

For more details about the competition, please follow the link.

The event will be held in Russian.

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At present, salmonid fish species are one of the key drivers for attracting additional investment into the industry.

On the one hand, 2026 will see a campaign to reissue fishing plot agreements, within which domestic resource users harvest red fish.

On the other hand, the current strategy for the development of the fisheries industry envisions a significant increase in the production volumes of commercial aquaculture by 2030, primarily through trout and Atlantic salmon – its main species.

Achieving both goals requires the attraction of stable bank financing, which in turn calls for the development of coordinated approaches to hedging systemic risks inherent in both the harvesting and farming of salmonid fish species.

Topics to discuss:

• Natural risks associated with the harvesting and farming of red fish: current hedging mechanisms used by the industry
• Production risks caused by dependency on imported supplies (selective genetic material, feed, core assets for launching new production facilities): current status and future outlook
• Tools and solutions for mitigating these risks, including potential measures involving the capabilities of Sber’s ecosystem

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Price forecasts, production volume estimates, or potential shortages of red caviar are a guaranteed way to make headlines in the country’s most influential federal newspapers, top national news portals, news aggregators, and popular Telegram channels.

The intense media and consumer attention to this relatively small segment of the fish product market is striking: year after year, starting in spring, newspaper headlines abound with forecasts for the new “red” fishing season; by September, price predictions for the New Year emerge; and from January onward, coverage shifts to forecasts related to February 23rd, March 8th, Maslenitsa, and so on in a continuous cycle. Thousands of publications, hundreds of thousands of comments, and a flood of consumer emotions follow.

For the past year, the most cited “fish-related” topic in the federal news agenda has been “record-high prices for red caviar.”

There is no point in hiding it: the red caviar market is undergoing a transformation, with product segmentation and increasingly volatile price fluctuations within this category. The red caviar market is returning to the state it was in before the early 1990s: premium caviar with high prices and lower-quality caviar segments.

At the same time, as revealed by a joint study conducted by the analytics company Nielsen and VARPE, branded fishermen’s products account for only 0.5% of retail red caviar sales.

Why is the share of red caviar sales in chain retail disproportionate to the overall share of retail in the “fish basket”?

What is the future of caviar boutiques?

What market niche do caviar marketplaces occupy?

These and other questions will be discussed by speakers during a special expert session at the International Fishery Forum.

Topics to discuss:

• How much red caviar was caught in grams: results of the 2025 salmon fishing season
• The Russian caviar code: sales structure, the role of “red caviar,” and sales trends
• Market transparency: the “Kamchatka experiment” and product labeling
• The catch behind “cheap” red caviar
• Does red caviar need advertising, and who should invest in it?
• Caviar online: the future of the market or a field for counterfeit products?
• New strategies of red caviar producers

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While ensuring the priority of supplying the domestic market with fish products, the development of exports remains one of the key conditions for the stability of the fisheries sector, with exports accounting for around 70% of the industry's revenue.

Russian fishing companies have managed to maintain the level of aquatic bioresource catch and the volume of fish product exports, despite the closure of the U.S. market, the introduction of prohibitive import duties by the UK, EU countries, and other unfriendly actions.

However, the promotion of Russian fish products to domestic consumers can play a crucial role in export development. A 10% increase in domestic sales of mass-market fish products would ease the pressure of Russian supply on foreign markets. This, in turn, would lead to price stabilization and growth in export prices, thereby improving the financial performance of exports.

How can this result be achieved?

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Event details will be released soon.

Despite the continued negative impact of unfriendly restrictions on foreign markets, export development remains one of the key conditions for the stability of the Russian fisheries sector. Export revenues account for approximately 70% of the industry's total income.

With the U.S. market closed to Russian fish products, the introduction of prohibitive import duties by the UK and EU countries, and other hostile measures, Russian fishing companies are actively exploring new export destinations.

In the first half of 2025, export volumes increased compared to the previous year. However, this progress has been accompanied by rising costs, which highlights the need for targeted support measures for Russian fish exports.

There is a pressing need to assist exporters in developing new markets and to formulate new approaches to promoting Russian fish products in the global marketplace.

Topics to discuss:

• Current and target structure of fishery product exports
• Efficiency and weight of exports in the sector’s financial performance
• Barriers to the development of fishery product exports
• Government incentives for fishery product exports
• Promising export destinations for fishery products

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Getting high-quality feeds is the most pressing concern for aquaculture businesses today. When tried and trusted foreign producers had left the Russian market, the industry saw a real “boom” of numerous offers from both Russian manufacturers and friendly countries.

The roundtable will focus on exploring the most successful cases of using feeds and the plans and prospects for developing this line of business.

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With global competition on the rise, technological sovereignty is becoming a key to maintaining stable growth of Russia’s fishery industry. The investment quota campaign, which is not limited to fishing fleet modernization but covers the entire infrastructure for fish products processing and logistics, remains a critical driver for achieving this goal.

This expansion of growth options requires vigorous collaboration of all actors engaged in new projects. That is why the discussion will involve both shipbuilders/ship repair companies and producers of equipment for each stage of the supply chain: processing, packaging, storage and transportation of fish products.

Alongside with strategic initiatives, they will discuss practical steps for increasing local content of technology development and production optimization. This will provide a solid ground for long-term growth of the Russian fishery industry and make it more competitive in the global market.

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The baby food market in Russia is growing at an unprecedented pace, both in volume and money terms. The key reasons include growing awareness of young parents about the impacts of healthy nutrition on the physical and mental development of their children and the “green trend,” i.e. the craze for green and organic products that grow naturally without antibiotics and growth hormones and do not require any artificial additives or preservatives for processing.

It would seem that wild fish harvested by Russian fishermen in environmentally pristine areas should be the main source of protein for such products foods. Yet, as a matter of practice, the top-10 brands are barely expanding their product mix, and some producers do not make fish puree at all. At the same time, estimates of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation show that the Russian market’s minimum demand, given the birth rate pattern, is around 85 mln cans per year, and if we go by the standards of the Ministry of Health – more than 150 mln per year, whereas the current volume of domestic production is tens of times less, at just around 4.5 mln cans.

The situation with milk formulas and functional nutrition for children is even more serious. In many countries worldwide the so-called “fish ingredients,” such as fish oil, fish meal, protein, vitamin and mineral complexes produced from fish and seafood, are widely used as additives for baby foods rich in vitamins, yet Russian manufacturers generate little to no demand for these products. It is noteworthy that lack of activity on the part of “specialized” manufacturers pushes large retailers to start their own brands. For example, VkusVill and Ozon Fresh both have a family of baby foods with fish puree. This sector obviously has a significant potential, and coordinated efforts of the state and business can stimulate growth of the fish market and long-term expansion of fish consumption by fostering a culture of consumption “from the cradle.” Beyond the economic benefits, this initiative offers a more far-reaching effect of building a healthy nation. Participants of the “Fish for Children” session of Global Fishery Forum 2025 will discuss whether creating a robust sector for baby food made with fish and fish ingredients in Russia is a realistic endeavor.

Topics to discuss:

• Findings of VARPE federal survey on the social media regarding the demand for baby food made with fish and fish ingredients.
• Opinions of healthcare professionals. Do pediatricians recommend fish to parents as the first complementary foods and why do baby food centers choose not to use “fish” puree?
• “How much fish is in the can”: a survey of baby food market.
• To buy or not to buy – that is the question. Why aren’t manufacturers interested in expanding their mix of “fish” baby food and retailers are?
• Children’s dietary supplements, milk formulas and functional nutrition with fish in Russia: growth point or dead weight?
• What are the ways to fuel growth of production of baby foods made with fish and fish ingredients in Russia? What kind of support do businesses want?

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Aquaculture today is becoming an increasingly important segment of the Russian fishery industry. Yet, the sector needs to improve the quality and volume of its production to stay on the path of successful development. This can be achieved through the use of more effective reproduction techniques and advanced genetic technologies that improve planting stock properties. Zealous promotion of domestic and foreign artificial selection programs will help:

• Increase productivity of fish farms and stability of the sector’s development
• Improve adaptation of cultivated species to relevant environmental conditions and their changes
• Reduce morbidity and mortality of fish fry
• Set the stage for breeding and reproduction of new species of aquatic bioresources

Altogether, this will contribute to the technological sovereignty of Russian aquaculture and make our local fish farm products more competitive in the global market.

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Today, artificial intelligence is becoming an indispensable tool in science — from big data processing and complex system modeling to automated text analysis and intelligent decision-support systems.

Universities are actively applying machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and other technologies to improve the quality of research in the fisheries sector, medicine, ecology, engineering, the humanities, and many other fields.

This roundtable provides an opportunity to share experiences, explore future prospects and challenges, and foster international cooperation in AI-driven academic research.

The discussion will highlight practical applications from universities and showcase real-world cases of integrating AI into academic environments.

Key question of the roundtable:

How is AI being used in scientific research and education?

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The Present and Future of the Russian Fisheries Sector Lie in Advanced Technologies in Aquaculture, Fishing, and Aquatic Bioresource Processing.

New competencies in aquaculture engineering and commercial fishing will increase the volume of farmed fish and enhance the harvest of aquatic bioresources. Technologies utilizing artificial intelligence will improve the productivity of fish farmers, trawl masters, and processors. Automated and robotic systems will ensure zero-waste, environmentally friendly, and standardized processes.

However, the adoption of new technologies requires a new generation of engineering professionals. This calls for the consolidation of efforts between higher education institutions and fishery enterprises through the development of new educational programs and technologies to train highly qualified personnel for the fisheries sector.

Topics to discuss:

• Breakthrough competencies in aquaculture, commercial fishing, and aquatic bioresource processing
• A new academic specialization: “Aquaculture Engineering” for the fisheries sector
• A new academic specialization: “Engineering Systems for Marine Economic Activities” for the fisheries sector
• Professional standards: past, present, and future
• AIS: Employment tracking and placement for graduates and internship assignments
• Mentorship as an educational intensive for competency development