Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - The amount of fees that Korean fishing vessels pay to catch pollock in the Russian exclusive economic zone in the Far East has been determined at US$350 per ton. The Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on May 13 that the negotiators for Korea and Russia held a 23rd meeting for three days from the 7th and reached an agreement on the fishing fees.
This is $10 lower than the $360 level that the Russian side had insisted on. Both parties came to an understanding that $5 out of the $10 would be deposited in an escrow account for future investment feasibility studies for the Russian Far East. Given the pollock quota of 40,000 tons, the total fund would be $200,000. More detailed discussions on how to strengthen mutual cooperation in the area of investment will be resumed in the following meeting to be held on June 23 in Vladivostok.
From the beginning of the meeting, Russian negotiators kept demanding the same $360 fee per ton. But Korean counterparts said that the 2013 quota was used up only 61 percent because of a drop in pollock prices. Last year, the domestic pollock prices fell 10 percent from 2012 when Korean fishing fleets used up 98 percent of the quota. The ministry expected this year's pollock fishing will begin at the end of May as the sticking point over licensing fees has been resolved.