Russia to manufacture reefers to meet seafood logistics needs

Russia's Federal Agency for Fisheries has announced it will facilitate the production of reefers – or refrigerated containers – to help the nation’s seafood industry meet its logistics needs.

Manufacturing of the containers will be managed through the state-owned enterprise Natsrybresurs (The National Fishery Resource), a subordinate entity of the fishery agency. Production will be performed by Chelyabinsk-based company CHTZ-Uraltrak.

Currently, according to a fishery agency press release, the production capacity of CHTZ-Uraltrak is 10,000 items a year of various types. For Natsrybresurs, the company will produce a reefer model dubbed “Penguin-6” that is powered by a portable energy station and that has a temperature range from negative 25 to positive 25 degrees Celsius.

The goal behind manufacturing the new reefers is enhancing the quality of seafood transported from Russia’s sparsely populated Far East – where most of the country’s catch is secured – to the more populated West. Russia has long sought to improve the logistics of shipping seafood from the east to the west, and recently began considering rail transportation subsidies.

“Manufacture of refrigerated containers is not just an ordinary issue. It’s a very important issue!” Primorye Fisheries Association President Georgiy Martynov said in an interview with Fishnews media agency. He said China is now allowing only containerized imports, and at the same time is one of the biggest producers of reefers in the world.

“We are now entirely dependent on one country,” Martynov said.

Martynov said using containers follows global logistics trends, and gives more flexibility in the transportation of goods – as a container is a universal way of transporting goods suitable to a number of transportation methods.

The fishery agency’s announcement calling for additional reefer capacity took place shortly before Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Trutnev announced the start of a regular container line via the North Sea Passage in 2022, delivering fish from the Russian Far East to Europe. The passage through the Russian Arctic will become year-round in 2023, giving Russian seafood companies another option for moving their goods to European markets.

Photo courtesy of newroadboy/Shutterstock