Ukraine has lost 60 percent of its fish catch due to the annexation of Crimea, Head of the State Fishery Agency of Ukraine Yarema Kovaliv has said.
“The fishing sector has lost a lot after the annexation of Crimea. Over 60 percent of the catch came from Crimea. And now the total amount we recorded is 91,000 tonnes,” he said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv.
He said that according to official statistics, average fish consumption in Ukraine is 11 kg, while in Europe it is 20 kg.
“But I want to note that most of catch is in the shadows in Ukraine. According to our estimates, the number of issued quotas for the pikeperch catch is 5 times less than the amount that was officially exported according to the documents. So I think that the real figures of fish consumption per capita significantly differs,” Kovaliv said.
He said that 32 state-owned enterprises work in the fish sector in Ukraine, of which only 7 are profitable. Also, there are 5,500 vessels registered vessels that are engaged in fishing. Some 550 economic entities that are engaged in industrial catch “which are those who provide our population with fish products,” he said.
