Baltic Export, Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Foodstuff, Good for Business, Legislation, Markets and Companies

"We intend to start the export of a semi-finished fish product to large fish processing companies in Russia this week, which will create additional competition on the Russian market and enable to cut the prices for consumers," Aljona Protassova, marketing director at DGM, told BNS.

Protassova said that after the embargo was imposed by Russia the purchase prices for sprat and Baltic herring in that country rose almost threefold, which makes the market attractive for DGM Shipping.

"At the same time, the purchase prices of fish in Latvia and Estonia have fallen a lot, fishers have had to endure serious losses and ship fish as feed for wild animals to Denmark, where logistics eats up all their profits," Protassova said.

The market situation has improved for DGM Shipping of late also not considering the Russian market.

"We can see new markets opening up. In the second quarter of 2018 we will be able to take into use two large plants in Estonia and Latvia for the manufacture of fishmeal and fish oil, the main consumers of which are China, Germany and the United States," Protassova said.

"Generally speaking, we hope to develop normal economic ties with Russia and to leave the political factor aside," she added.

Rosselkhoznadzor announced on Monday that it has lifted its ban on imports of sprat from the Latvian company SIA Karavela and Estonia's DGM Shipping AS.

"The issue of lifting the import ban on the remaining enterprises will be reviewed on the basis of material presented by the appropriate institutions in Latvia and Estonia which show that violations were eliminated," the statement said.

The agency in the summer of 2015 banned import of fish products from Estonia and Latvia, saying that it had detected breaches of veterinary and food safety regulations.