FEATURE
Ukrain ian Fis h Farm Oppor ing: tunitie s for g rowth OVER 40 PERCENT OF UKRAINIAN MEAT PROTEIN CONSUMPTION IS DERIVED FROM FISH
O
n June 27, 2014 Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko signed an ‘Association Agreement’ with the European Union. Many Ukrainian’s are hopeful that the signing of this agreement will mark a change in the economic fortunes in a country where economic growth has lagged behind its neighbours in recent years. One sector hoping to benefit from such providence is the Ukrainian fishing and aquaculture sector. With a population of over 45 million people, infrastructure and distribution enhancements in recent years have made Ukraine an attractive consumer market. Across the country, the supermarket network has increased exponentially over the past 10 years. Supermarket retail sales have trebled in the past 10 years to over US$50 billion per annum. Food retail sales alone have increase by 160 percent in the past five years. Ukraine has a largely urban population.
The largest 25 cities have a combined population greater than 15 million people. Fifty percent of current retail sales occur in the five largest urban markets. Presently, over 40 percent of Ukrainian meat protein consumption is derived from fish. Ukrainians consume on average 14 kilograms of fish per capita per annum, double the consumption levels of the 1990s. This per capita consumption is expected to increase further to 20kg per capita by 2020. With a total market size exceeding 600,000 tonnes per annum, Ukraine has a significant trade deficit in fish. With an aging fleet and lack of investment, Ukraine’s domestic catch has declined from approximately 350,000 tonnes in 2000 to 200,000 tonnes today. At the same time demand for fish products have continued to grow, with fish imports exceeding 425,000 tonnes in 2012. Whereas the value of Ukrainian fish exports has never exceeded €20 million over the past 10 years, the value of imports
has continued to skyrocket. Fish imports exceeded €650 million in 2013.
Domestic opportunity
The value of Ukrainian fish imports has increased by 55 percent in the past five years. 70 percent of these imports consist of frozen products. However, an interesting trend has been the growth of fresh or chilled fish imports, the value of which have increased by close on 300 percent in the past five years.
Little sourced from aquaculture
Presently, only 13 percent of domestic fish production is sourced from aquaculture. Consequently, Ukraine has the opportunity to expand its fish farming activities to meet growing market demand. With this growing demand for fresh quality product, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have started to look at business opportunities for domestic aquaculture ventures. One such company, FishFarm Ukraine, is a Ukrainian start-up whose founders have an
Table 1: Exports from Ukrainian to neighouring countries Total Fish Imports ‘000
Fresh Whole Imports ‘000
Percent of Total Imports
CEE
€2,940
€1,063
36 percent
CIS
€3,254
€913
28 percent
Poland
€1,316
€649
49 percent
Russia
€2,154
€734
34 percent
Belarus
€317
€63
20 percent
Table 2: Imports of fish into Ukrainian in value Million €
2013
14 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | July-August 2014