Year after year, fish product logistics concerns occupy a central place on the exhibition and business programme of the Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo. Local market security and export capacity of Russia’s fishery businesses depend directly on storage conditions and delivery times. This is why our second review focuses on storage, refrigeration and transportation.

Logistics in the spotlight of the exhibition and business programme

Many new companies participated in the logistics section of the Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo Russia this year. In addition to major carriers, some regional businesses offering unique specialty services joined in. One is New Elevation, a company that manages regular bilateral Russia-China supplies to Heilongjiang Province, with subsequent delivery to processing facilities in Harbin, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

Another enterprise that joined the logistics section is Pulkovo Logistics Company, which has been providing transport services in Russia and abroad for over ten years by different means and methods of multimodal transportation.

Key players on the transportation and storage market, Dalreftrans (subsidiary of FESCO Transportation Group), Refagrotrans and Vladreftrans, are regular exhibitors in the logistics section. Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port, producer of autonomous refrigerated and diesel generator containers Thermos Container, multi-temperature storage operator UK Grando, and customs broker and international forwarding company Map-Line came to the exhibition again this year.

Representatives of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the Forum & Expo’s logistics partner, once again held an open discussion with the sector community on transporting perishable fish products. In 2023, the company launched an air bridge for delivering live crabs from Russia to China and its focus this year is on developing a full-package service for perishable goods transportation. At the meeting, as part of the business programme, the participants were able to consider thoroughly fish logistics development in Russia and abroad, the growing interest in chilled fish and seafood on the domestic market, the need to build an efficient transport and storage infrastructure, and the prospects for cooperation between fishing enterprises and carriers.

“Industry events are a great way to make a name for yourself, as we did last year here in St Petersburg, and to continue building ties with your customers and partners, adjusting your existing services and exploring strategic pathways. We saw that our industry peers are interested in shipping their products not only to China, but also to Russia and the Middle East, so we will work to cater for them. And we will certainly bear in mind the Far Eastern direction we are already exploring together with the major industry players”, Igor Zakharov, Production Director, Volga-Dnepr Airlines.

Fish logistics were also on the agenda of a dedicated roundtable with representatives of the regulator Vladimir Walter, General Director, Terminal Seroglazka, Andrey Grechkin, General Director, Dalreftrans (FESCO), Andrey Borodin, General Director, Murmansk Sea Fishing Port, Alexey Osintsev, President, Fishery Shipowners Association and others. They discussed the options for delivering fish cargo via Russian sea ports and public-private partnerships for port infrastructure upgrades, railway logistics, expansion of subsidies and other ways to boost fish product transportation. They also talked about setting up new logistics capacities to offset the seasonal factors of container shortages.

Logistics issues were implicitly addressed during special business programme activities devoted to export and consumption of fish products and aquaculture, and at bilateral business sessions and, with regard to HoReCa, also at the roundtable session organized by JSC Rosselkhozbank. 

Construction of logistics parks was discussed in more detail at the roundtable on industrial support for the fishery complex organized in collaboration with the Russian Ministry for Industry and Trade.

Unbroken cold chain for fish and more

The Ministry for Industry and Trade also sponsored a specialized Ship Tech Global exhibition, one of its highlights being furnishing ships being built with different equipment, including for refrigeration and low-temperature storage.

Refrigeration equipment vendors play a critical part in management of the logistics infrastructure and, this year, the exhibition featured the products of companies such as Ref-Technologii, Gran, Tobol, Kholodmash, Lednov, IEMZ Kupol, Proektintertekhnika, Profkholod, Everflo from South Africa, and a number of companies from China: Guangzhou Chonson Beyond Technology Group, Lan Foodtech, Square Technology Group and Wolfking Foodtech.

In addition, the second Cold Chain Eurasia International Conference took place on 19 September alongside the Forum & Expo. This year it brought together more than 130 experts representing all elements of the unbroken cold chain for transporting all kinds of temperature-sensitive cargo, including both consignors and logistics operators.

The Conference business programme included a plenary session where experts looked into strategic aspects of unbroken cold chain management and operation in Russia, in conjunction with global traffic routes, as well as three themed sessions focusing on different fields of cold chain logistics. This format allowed the participants to consider successful cases of shipping various types of cargo, to address the highlights of using certain modes of transport and special aspects of logistics typical of individual segments of the transportation market.

The Conference was organized by the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transport (CCTT), the Association of Food Sector Organizations (ASORPS) and Expo Solutions Group, with support from the Association of European Businesses (AEB).