Twenty years ago, Ukraine could catch about 400,000 tons of fish annually. But over time, these opportunities were lost due to various circumstances. As a result, according to official data, Ukraine has been producing and growing only about 90,000 tons of its own fish for the last 3 years of its own fish, which is not enough to satisfy the existing demand.
Because many types of fish products, for objective reasons, we can not catch or grow in Ukraine, 80% of all fish products in the Ukrainian market is imported. Ukraine imports fish and seafood from 60 countries. At the same time, most of the fish we import from Norway, Iceland and the USA. Next come Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Canada, Great Britain, China, Vietnam and Argentina. First place in terms of imports is herring. In addition to herring, we import in large measure (in descending order): mackerel, hake, Baltic herring, salmon, sprat, pollock, capelin, sardines, notothenia, pangasius, shrimp, blue whiting, mussels, squid, saury, vomer. According to different estimates and in different periods for each Ukrainian an average of about 10-14 kg of fish per year, which is extremely small, as the world average is more than 20 kg per person per year.
In order to protect the rights and interests of importing companies of fish and seafood, the only voluntary, non-governmental and profile association - the Association of Ukrainian Fish and Seafood Importers - has been established and is functioning.
We are convinced that only by joint efforts it is possible to improve business conditions, primarily for fish importers, as well as to increase the consumption of fish products by the population of Ukraine, which will lead, among other things, to the growth of imports, processing volumes and export opportunities of our companies. We believe that due to insufficient communication and coordination between the participants of the fish market, we bear joint losses and ourselves limit the development of this industry.
We invite you to join the Association of "Ukrainian Fish and Seafood Importers" and jointly defend our rights and interests, as well as develop the fish industry of Ukraine.