MOSCOW, December 19 The volume of production of red caviar in the Russian Federation has more than doubled due to the record salmon run, but so far the prices for it are not much lower compared to last year, and a more noticeable decline will begin after the New Year and continue until Maslenitsa, says the head of the Fishing Union, Alexander Panin.
“I am sure that by Maslenitsa caviar will be more accessible, but at the same time it will be possible to choose acceptable quality,” Panin told reporters. According to estimates from the Analytical Center of the Fisheries Union, at the end of the year, the volume of production of salmon caviar will increase by 2.5 times, to 25 thousand tons; Today production has already reached 23 thousand tons.
Meanwhile, due to high catches and lack of production capacity, the produced caviar may turn out to be of heterogeneous quality, Panin believes. This situation, according to him, accompanies every fishing year — production capacities are designed with a reserve, but they are still sometimes not enough, so “fishermen, in an attempt to digest all this large volume, reduce the quality of the products produced — this applies to both fish and caviar.”
«Not the highest quality caviar tends to oxidize and ferment faster, and this will put pressure on traders and sellers in order to sell these volumes as quickly as possible, which in turn will put pressure on the price (for Maslenitsa — ed.),” he explained.
Meanwhile, the best caviar will be on the New Year's table: according to Panin, sellers for the holiday primarily strive to sell high-quality products, and its price in wholesale and retail is not yet so significantly different from last year — from 2.5 thousand rubles per kilogram, in retail it is still much higher. “But there are no objective prerequisites for an increase in caviar prices. I believe that after the new year there will be a downward adjustment, precisely under the pressure of the factor of a large amount of caviar,” he added.
In 2022, 10 thousand tons of salmon caviar were produced in Russia, in 2021 (odd year) — about 23 thousand tons. The cost of a kilogram of red caviar in Russia in November for the first time since the end of last year dropped below six thousand rubles and amounted to 5,974 rubles, according to Rosstat data.
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