Ruud believes that as much as 50-60 percent of the 1100 tons of king crab Norway will catch in 2014, will be sold abroad alive. Live sea food is trendy, it has a long tradition in Asia and the Middle East, and it brings a higher market value than processed crab, he explains to BarentsObserver.
King crab exporters, fishers, scientists and policy makers were gathered in Kirkenes on Monday for the annual King Crab Conference.
Norway King Crab exports live crab to places like Dubai, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, Paris and – until Russia imposed a ban on import of sea food from Norway – to Moscow.
Russia stood for 16 percent of the market for Ruud, but the import ban has not had any serious consequences for his company. He has even sold more crab than before the ban. “The market can’t seem to get enough king crab right now,” Ruud says. “Of course it is sad to suddenly lose 16 percent of the market, but it is not drastic for us.”
Russia’s ban on import of food from the EU, USA and several other countries is meant to last for one year, but Ruud believes the outlook for a return to the Russian market is rather bleak. “Our Russian customers beg us to wait for them, but I believe that the downward tendency in Russian economy will lead to a deterioration of the purchase power. In twelve months there might be no market at all.”
Norway has chosen a two-sided approach to management of the king crab. East of 26°E, fishing is strictly regulated through quotas and aims at creating incomes and jobs, while fishing west of 26°E is free and aims on stopping the crab from migrating further south.
“We will keep this precautionary approach to management of the crab, since we still know too little about the effects the crab has on local flora and fauna”, Minister of Fisheries Elisabeth Aspaker said in her opening speech at the conference.
The red king crab was imported from the Pacific Ocean to the Barents Sea in the 1960s by Russian scientists to provide new, valuable catch for Soviet fishermen. The species spread west along the Norwegian coast and became a nuisance for fishermen finding the giant crabs tangled in their nets. Starting in 1991 an annual experimental crab fishery was tested, and in 2002 Norway launched a commercial red king crab fishery. Russia launched a commercial king crab fishery in 2004.
