The loss of seaports has increased prices for fish and seafood in Ukraine
Fish and seafood on Ukrainian shelves in April increased in price by an average of 33% compared to pre-war February. The State Statistics Service of Ukraine reports this.
The Association of Ukrainian Importers of Fish and Seafood says that with the start of full-scale hostilities, the Ukrainian fish and seafood market has decreased several times. Due to blocked ports in the Black Sea, logistics problems arise, and domestic fishing suffers from military operations in the country.
“Almost 40% of imported fish was delivered by sea. Accordingly, all ports are now blocked, and there is no way to conveniently deliver a large amount of products. It was by sea that hake and pollock were imported from America, seafood from Asian countries, and herring and mackerel from Norway and Iceland. Currently, companies are forced to redirect some of their products to the fish hub in Lithuania, and some to Romania and Turkey, from there they are sent to Ukraine by road, these are unusual routes for both importers and countries, because due to the increased congestion, the ports cannot cope “, noted the importers association.
Difficulties also arose with imports carried out by road transport, experts say. Some of the products were sent from the Baltic countries, in particular Estonia, through Belarus. Now this direction is also impossible due to Kyiv’s unilateral sanctions against Minsk and transport is taking a detour. As a result, a situation has arisen where 90% of fish products are currently imported to Ukraine by land through Poland, and 10% through Romania and Hungary.
“Due to disrupted logistics in March, the volume of imported fish and seafood amounted to a maximum of 10% of the volume in March last year. In April, the situation improved somewhat as companies began to adapt,” the importers’ association reported.
Significant losses, which reached hundreds of millions of hryvnia, were suffered by the Ukrainian fish and seafood market due to the fighting in the Kyiv region, where a large number of warehouses and logistics hubs supplying the capital and the metropolitan region are concentrated.
As for domestic fishing, there are also significant problems here, market experts say.
“Last year, 65 thousand tons of fish were caught. For example, until 2014, when Crimea was not occupied, this figure was 200-220 thousand tons. After the annexation of Crimea - about 100 thousand tons, and the last two or three years, fish catch has been declining, now the situation is no better, since a third is caught in the Azov Sea, a third in the Black Sea, and a third in inland waters. Now it is impossible to fish either in the Azov or the Black Sea. An internal resource remains, but only in parts that have not been occupied. Even in pre-war periods, this figure was 15-20 thousand tons,” laments the Association of Ukrainian Importers of Fish and Seafood.
The loss of seaports has driven up fish and seafood prices in Ukraine.