Working with smoke: how to make money on smoked fish. How to sell fish and make money on fishing? How to make money selling fish

The article provides up-to-date information on the breeding and sale of popular and expensive aquarium fish, including advice on choosing aquariums, equipment, facilities and the most valuable fish species from a business point of view.

business concept

In essence, the business of breeding aquarium fish is a simple and unpretentious task: we buy rare and expensive aquarium fish, first create conditions for them, get offspring in the future, and establish stable distribution channels.

The essence and prospects of the aquarium fish business are as follows:

Complete lack of competition from major manufacturers. Unlike Europe, in Russia and the CIS countries there are still neither such enterprises nor the corresponding equipment.
Low investment, the availability of aquariums, equipment and accessories, the ability to start a business from scratch.
A novice entrepreneur does not need to spend money on building or renting a room, since aquarium fish can be bred in an ordinary apartment.
Availability print and electronic literature allows anyone who does not have the appropriate education to engage in such a business.
Wide distribution channels, such as pet stores, bird markets and private aquarists, almost completely solve the problem of selling aquarium fish.
Opportunity to receive additional sources of income through the production of related products (algae, invertebrates, live food).
Huge prospects business development, up to the opening of a pet store or a whole distribution network.

Selection of the most popular fish

The choice of the most sought-after fish is the most important point in such a business. And here you should rely on several factors:

First, under the guise of a buyer, thoroughly analyze supply and demand in all pet stores in the city. Find out which fish are in the greatest demand and which are not, how much they cost, whether they breed in captivity, etc.
Secondly, in no case should you rely on well-known and easily bred fish species. First, these fish are cheap. Secondly, ordinary amateur aquarists will make the entrepreneur simply monstrous competition, since they will constantly saturate the market with cheap fry, which they often give away to pet stores for nothing.
Third - you can not start little-studied species of fish, as well as imported fish that live in the brackish coastal waters of India, Asia and Australia. Such fish are in high demand, perfectly acclimatize in artificial reservoirs, grow well, but they are completely incapable of producing offspring.

The list below contains the most optimal options for orders and types of aquarium fish that have a decent price, high demand and the ability to reproduce offspring.

Common name		Cost in rub.	ability to reproduce

	From age
Synodontis

Notopter

The main channels for the sale of aquarium fish

In the ways of selling aquarium fish, there are two main areas that work in close conjunction with each other.

Realization of fish directly private aquarists. This method works great regardless of production volumes. Indeed, over time, an entrepreneur acquires not only practical experience in breeding fish, but also authority among aquarists. As a result, the number of such customers will only grow.
Sale of fish pet stores or resellers. Naturally, the price in this case for fry and adults will be lower than the retail price, but such a sales market will be an excellent guideline for regulating the overall production of aquarium fish.

Important: In the sale of fish, one should not focus on only one age group. And sell them better parts, namely: the main part - fry, the rest - teenagers, and what is not realized, grow up to reproductive age.

What equipment is required to start a business?

To answer this question, first you need to decide on the types of farmed fish, study the conditions for their maintenance and reproduction, and, based on the knowledge gained, select equipment.

On initial stage business development, you can purchase universal aquariums with a volume of 200-250 liters, the equipment offered for them, and already on the spot create the necessary conditions for keeping each breed of fish.

List of universal equipment

Name of equipment	Purpose of equipment	Cost in rub. for 1 piece	Required number of pcs.	Total cost in rubles
Aquarium Biodesign Reef
Compressor Eheim Air Pump	Water aeration
Filter SOBO WP-1900F	Water filtration
Daylight lamp T8 Life-Glo II	aquarium lighting
Thermostat Sobo HG	Water heating
Trixie automatic feeder	Rational feeding of fish
thermometer sticker	Water temperature control

Requirements for the premises

Almost any kind freshwater fish can be bred in a city apartment, or more precisely, in a separate room, which must be brought into proper form in advance and a number of important conditions must be observed:

First- be sure to shade the room

The fact is that for some types of fish, bright daylight is either necessary or contraindicated, and there are also fish that can die from an excess of light. Therefore, it is better to regulate the desired degree of illumination for certain types of fish with the help of special aquarium lamps that imitate sunlight.

Second- locate aquariums as far as possible from central heating batteries, and if possible, turn them off altogether, replacing them with electrical appliances with microclimate control.

Central heating batteries are a completely unpredictable thing. Sharp and sometimes fatal jumps in air temperature in a room with aquariums lead to irreparable consequences. Therefore, replacing central heating with alternative room heating is fully justified.

Third- make sure the strength of the floor coverings and arrange aquariums only in a single-tier row.

In the aquarium fish business, it is customary to measure production volumes not by the number of aquariums and fish, but by the volume of water in these aquariums, where the bill goes to tons. And in the business model below, in order to receive stable income, you will need at least 2 tons of water. Naturally, all this entails significant loads on the floor coverings, which must withstand such weight without any problems. And one more thing: it is not recommended to install aquariums in two or three tiers. Firstly, it will be difficult to serve them, and, secondly, if the whole thing inadvertently collapses, then you will have to not only calculate losses, but also pay impressive compensation to neighbors for apartment repairs.

Feasibility Studies for Starting an Aquarium Fish Farming Business

In order to have a clear and clear picture of further actions, it is necessary to start from a certain and, in a way, a universal business model. For example, there are fully equipped 12 aquariums for 200-250 liters of water each, where 5 of them will be occupied by adult fish (6 females and 2 males each), and the remaining 7 aquariums will be used for spawning, growing and growing fry.

As a result, reducing everything to average indicators, from 30 fish per year you can get 3000 fry (100 fry per 1 female). Where the average cost of one sold fish will be equal to 200 rubles. (malek - 50-100 rubles, teenager 200-300 rubles, adult fish - 200-3000 rubles). Based on these figures, accurate calculations of capital investments, income and expenses can be made.

How much money is required to start a business?

Capital investment

Purchase of aquariums and equipment - 172,000 rubles.
Purchase of adult fish in a quantity of 40 pcs. - 40,000 rub.
Feed for 3 months - 7 200 rubles.
Other expenses - 10,000 rubles.
Total - 229,200 rubles.

How much can you earn for breeding fish?

Revenue calculation:

250 fish per month for 200 rubles. each.

Total - 50 thousand rubles.

Monthly expenses:

Electricity - 2600 kW / month = 3900 rubles.
Feed - 2400 rubles.
Total - 6300 rubles.

Profit calculation:

Profit= 50,000 rubles. - 6 300 rubles. = 43,700 rubles.

Return on investment 6-8 months.

Most of the businessmen are men. Many men love and go fishing. If we continue the logical series, then own fish farming is a very attractive business. Is it so? What kind of fish is better to breed in our conditions and what pitfalls can lie in wait for us in this matter?

What is more profitable - carp or trout?

Anyone who decides to start his own "fish" business, first of all, will need to decide what kind of fish he will breed. We'll have to choose one - either carp or trout.

These types of fish grow well and are constantly in demand among buyers. Actually, the technology of fish breeding on the farm will depend on this choice.

If opportunities allow, you can go for carp, trout, and much more. Every year, the farm sells about 1100 tons of live fish, of which only 500-600 tons are grown directly in our fish farm - the rest we import from other fish farms for subsequent sale. In addition, we breed fish in rented reservoirs in the southern regions, arrange paid fishing, we are engaged in fish processing - smoking, canning and other things. For a novice fish farmer, such scales, of course, are not available.

It is easier, of course, to grow carp. It is unpretentious, tenacious and suitable for many different reservoirs. To understand the technology of carp breeding, you do not need to graduate from the academy with a degree in fish farming, it is enough to get acquainted with publicly available information or read books. On the market, at almost the same cost, capricious and sensitive trout cost almost three times as much. But, in this case, you will have to hire a qualified fish farmer: education and experience are needed here.

This season, the market has developed low wholesale prices for live fish. Trout has fallen in price, carp is inexpensive. And yet, fish farming remains profitable. The profitability of the fish factory today is less than ten percent. And the farmer's middle class", which does not pay for the maintenance of any rather large infrastructure, the rate of return is even more possible. Fish farming is attractive because agricultural enterprises, including fish farms, have switched to a single agricultural tax. Now they pay the state only six percent of their income, without VAT, income tax, social tax and property tax.

"Climate" for fish

The health and growth of fish is determined by two main factors - the temperature of the water and its saturation with oxygen. In addition, the state of the entire biological system of the reservoir is important, for example, acidity (pH), etc. It is possible only for specialists to determine whether a pond is suitable for fish farming. Therefore, before stocking the reservoir with fish, it is advised to make the so-called “fish-breeding biological justification”. It is advisable to conduct this examination four times a year - in summer, winter, spring, autumn.

For trout, the optimum water temperature is +16 +19 C, but if the pond warms up to +24 C, the fish will stop feeding and may die. Trout is kept in a quarry 15 meters deep, and already at a depth of 4 meters the water temperature, even in the heat, never rises above +16 C. Therefore, almost all fish farms that breed trout are organized on cold rivers, or draw water from rivers or artesian wells.

With carp breeding, everything is easier. Basically, the pond should not be polluted with any garbage, dirty drains, various oil products, decaying organic matter and should warm up well (the optimum temperature is +24 +25 C). The depth of the pond can be small - up to 2 meters. At such a depth, the natural food base is actively developing.

The whole of Russia is divided into fish farming zones. The Moscow region belongs to the first and second zones. The southern regions - for example, the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories - to the fifth or sixth. In them (southern regions) it is much more profitable to breed fish, since the vegetative period is longer, during which the fish actively feeds and grows. If the whole technology is correctly built and a suitable reservoir is selected, then fish farming can be made quite profitable in the middle lane.

A pond with an area of 5-6 hectares is enough for the reproduction of about 10 tons of carp. It is noteworthy that the larger the reservoir, the easier it is to breed fish. A small reservoir is more difficult to operate, as it quickly cools down and quickly warms up, and it has a complex hydrochemical regime. In a large pond, the temperature regime is more even, which is favorable for fish.

It is welcomed that the carp pond be drainable: this greatly facilitates the process of catching in the fall. To do this, build a dam if the pond is formed by a dam on the river.

Most mistakenly believe that it is enough to put the fish into the pond, it will grow on its own and after that it only needs to be caught and sold. This is wrong! Fish farming is a complex and risky business.

Nutrition

The main item of expenditure for fisheries is feed. This item of expenditure eats up more than half of all expenses. You can, of course, put the fish into a pond and wait until it grows on a natural food base. This will have to wait a very long time. At the same time, no more than 125 kg can be obtained from 1 hectare of a reservoir. fish. But if you grow fish with a high-intensity method and do everything right, you can get more than two tons of fish per hectare. The main components of the method are high stocking density and high protein nutritious feeds containing protein and fat. These feeds are more effective, but are more expensive than compound feeds. The average price of food for carp is about 10 rubles. per kg.

Feeding trout is more expensive and more difficult, because high-quality German feed is purchased for her, the price is about 1 euro per kg. In Russia, extruded feed of this level is produced by only one plant in Sergiev Posad. If the trout is fed with ordinary compound feed, then it will have white meat. The consumer is used to red. And it can be obtained only by using special feed additives - kartoids obtained from krill.

A significant difference in the price of carp and trout feed is smoothed out by the amount of feed that is needed for their fattening and the final selling price of the fish. Having spent only 1 kg of feed on trout, you can get an increase in fish weight of almost the same kilogram. In a kilogram of weight gain, carp will have to swell almost 3-4 kilograms of feed. Therefore, as a result, the cost of feed for growing 1 kg. carp are about 30 rubles, and trout - a little more.

In a rapidly developing world, you can make money in any attractive way, and a hobby will be no exception. If your favorite pastime is fishing, then there are a great many ways to earn money. You can also earn money by fishing.

You can sell fish in any form: both dried and fresh, both smoked and salted - there are many options. But this way of earning is unstable, because it depends on the catch, and it may not always be rich, the weather, which can deteriorate at any moment, and for many other reasons.

My name is Soldatenko E.I. I started my business in 1998. At that time I was 30 years old.

My family and I live in small town Serebryansk in the East Kazakhstan region. It stands at the foot of the mountains on the Irtysh River. In the same place we have the Bukhtarma reservoir, which feeds the whole city.

The process of smoking fish.

Our expenses and income

Expenses

Income we count on 1000 kilograms of smoked fish in ten days:

1000 kg × 200 rubles = 200,000 rubles.
200 000 rub. - 74,800 rubles. = 125,200 rubles.
We divide it in half, it turns out 62,600 rubles - my earnings for ten days.

About 178,000 rubles come out per month. In this mode, we have worked for five years. Then the following happened.

Can't be trusted in business

My partner, and part-time cousin, decided to earn more. Since he was engaged in sales, he negotiated with buyers on his own.

For me, the price was announced - 200 rubles, in fact, the fish was sold for 300 rubles. All the difference went into my brother's pocket. So he made himself an expensive repair, bought a new car.

Everything was discovered by chance. In our city, many people are engaged in such a business, respectively, they know the prices. One familiar fisherman said that I was being fooled.

Naturally, after that there was a difficult conversation, after which our partnership broke up - my brother was left with a house, and I took a new boat with a good motor. After that, I decided that I would just go fishing and sell fresh fish.

Difficulties in the fishing business

If you want to go into such a business, then be prepared for problems.

Weather. The weather is not always good. It often happens that there is a strong wind that can blow for three days or more. During this time, all the nets have time to get tangled, and the fish become rotten. You can spend two days to check the networks after the wind, as well as calculate the losses.
small catch. Schools of fish wander the sea, they never stay long in one place. You have to look for it for a long time, rearrange the networks, and this is not the easiest job. A large heavy stone is tied to each net, which prevents them from being carried away by the undercurrent.
Market congestion. Every year there comes a period when there are a lot of fish, most often from mid-July to the end of August. At this time, it is difficult to sell both smoked and fresh fish. You have to store ready-made batches in a cold cellar, where the fish can lie without spoiling for one to two weeks.
There is another seemingly small problem, but it brings a lot of trouble. This common fly. She can crawl into the dryer even through the smallest hole. If the fly gets to the fish, then in just fifteen minutes it can lay eggs in most of the batch. After that, you will have to throw everything away and count the losses.
Smoke. During smoking, it fills everything around. Smoke corrodes the eyes and nasopharyngeal mucosa, even a respirator does not really help here. During smoking, you need to periodically look into the smoker to check the condition of the fish, how it is gaining color, make sure that the sawdust does not burn, and maintain the correct temperature. All this has to be done in smoke, so you are guaranteed permanent rhinitis.
Human factor. Every business faces this problem. She didn't miss me either. Basically, people with low social responsibility go to fish processing: they themselves decide whether to go to work or not. It often happens that during the arrival of a large batch of fresh fish, half of the workers, or even more, arrange a day off. We have to get to work ourselves.
The fishing season does not last all year. At the time when ice rises on the reservoir, work stops, just as in the spring during ice drift. Twice a year, a ban on catching peled and ripus is established. In general, for the whole year you have to sit without work for almost four months.

My business now

As I said above, now I just fish. I did not earn less, but I got rid of some of the problems that I told you about.

For 17 years, fewer fish have been caught. Now for one catch it is possible to catch about three hundred kilograms. In the sea, as we call the reservoir, I have almost two kilometers of nets. Two boats come out for inspection, respectively, for each I buy a license.

It is necessary to break only with networks. Fishing nets are banned, and thread fish are not caught in the volumes that are needed.

Expenses and income for today

Expenses

networks

40 000 rub. They pay off in a week, sometimes faster. They work all year round.

The Russian Sea group of companies has managed to become the largest fish and seafood market on the Russian market, copying the experience of foreign partners. Now she is going to go international herself.

The best fish is sausage. But not for Maxim Vorobyov, who made his capital on seafood. In 10 years, he managed to turn a small supplier into Russia's largest importer and producer of fish and seafood.

Now Maxim Vorobyov owns two formally independent enterprises - the Russian Sea and the Russian Fish Company, which will soon merge into a single entity. “The company is like a child,” Dmitry Denezhkin, General Director of the Russian Sea Group of Companies, explains the need for change. “When she was small, we developed using own forces. Then it became clear that this was no longer possible: there were no longer enough own resources. Meanwhile, the market is growing. There is only one thing left: to bring the child out into the world.”

By “bringing it to the people”, Dmitry Denezhkin means the transformation of the “Russian Sea” into a public company. According to the plan of the management, this should happen in 2009. However, the divisions of the company, without waiting for the appointed time, are already compiling long-term plans using money from a future IPO.

On your own

The BUSINESS of a fish importer began in 1997, when the brothers Maxim and Andrey Vorobyov registered the Russian Fish Company. They bought fish in Norway, and then imported through the Baltic countries to Russia. During this period, most of the large fish state-owned enterprises were on the verge of ruin. The market was free, and the business of the brothers quickly took off.

For a couple of years, the company was engaged only in the import of fish and its further resale in ports. But this did not bring too much profit, so the Vorobyovs decided to develop a distribution network throughout the country. “There were two options: to enter into agreements with local trading companies or create our own branches,” says Dmitry Dangauer, general director of the Russian Fish Company. “Working with third-party companies was not so risky, but we decided to invest only in ourselves.” By 1999, the company opened branches in Lyubertsy, Voronezh and the Far East.

Now the management of the Russian Fish Company is sure that they made no mistake with the choice of strategy. The enterprise is the largest supplier of fish, controlling about 8% of the Russian market. It accounts for about 40% of the salmon and trout market and up to 30% of the so-called pelagic fish (herring, capelin, mackerel). Recently, the company has been actively developing deliveries from China and Vietnam, importing hake fillet, pollock, as well as tilapia and pangasius, new to Russia.

Access to high-quality imported raw materials at one time allowed the Russian Fish Company to reach a fundamentally new level: create your own processing industry.

DOSSIER

The RUSSIAN SEA GROUP of COMPANIES was founded in 1997 by brothers Andrey and Maxim Vorobyov. In 2000, Andrei Vorobyov left the company, selling his share to his brother Maxim, who today is the main owner of the Russian Sea.

The group's activities are focused on three areas: wholesale trade in fish and seafood ("Russian Fish Company"); production of products for the end consumer ("Russian Sea") and fish farming ("Russian Sea - Aquaculture").

The Russian Fish Company is owned by the Cypriot Corsico Limited, and the Russian Sea is owned by another Cypriot company, Aurora Industries Limited. Cypriot firms, in turn, are owned by RS Group Ltd., registered in the Virgin Islands. The latter is owned by Maxim Vorobyov and 16 other individuals - the leaders of the group, who received the right to buy back 5% of the shares as options.

The company owns a plant in Noginsk. Production accounts for 30% of its turnover, the remaining 70% comes from the distribution division.

The group's turnover in 2006 was $350 million, EBITDA - $29 million. Turnover in 2007 was $640 million, EBITDA - $60 million.

KNOW-HOW

Group of companies "Russian Sea": created a branch network for the supply of imported and domestic fish throughout the country;

Used access to imported fish to develop its own production;

Copies Western products, adapting them to the tastes of Russian consumers;

Launched a project artificial cultivation trout.

MARKET

THE VOLUME OF THE RUSSIAN FISH MARKET has changed significantly over the past 18 years. If in 1989 a resident of the USSR ate at least 40 kg of fish per year, today only 18 kg. For comparison: the average Japanese consumes about 65 kg of fish annually, and the European - about 45 kg. The total capacity of the Russian market is about 4.5 million tons, or 400 billion rubles. According to Timur Mitupov, head of the investment and analytical group Norge-Fish, in Moscow in 2005-2007, the increase in fish consumption averaged 50%, in St. Petersburg - 25%, and on average in Russia - 15%.

In total, about 5.5 thousand fish processing enterprises operate in Russia. The largest players are ROK-1, Meridian, Marina and Russian Sea (about 12% of the market in total).

According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, fish imports in 2007 reached 30 billion rubles. Thus, fresh, chilled and fresh-frozen fish for 11 months of 2007, compared with the same period of 2006, were imported by 25.7% more in volume and 41.8% more in value.

competitive bone

A PLACE for the enterprise was found in Noginsk near Moscow, having acquired an abandoned vegetable store there. The re-equipment cost $6 million - borrowed and current assets were invested. The crisis prevented a successful start: the plant, registered to a new legal entity - Russian Sea, began operating in December 1998. Therefore, in Noginsk, at first, it was necessary to produce the cheapest type of product: salted herring, which was sold by weight. And in 1999, the company began to produce the first branded products in branded packaging - Stolichnaya herring.

“At first we wanted to distribute herring through wholesale companies, but their catalogs included several thousand positions, and our product was simply lost,” recalls the current general director of the Russian Sea, and in 1998 the director of Russian Sea - Delivery LLC Svetlana Fedoseeva.- Then we decided to do the distribution ourselves.” The company, which did not have its own vehicles, hired private drivers, printed brochures for managers - and sent them to conquer the market.

At first, things didn't go well: the competitors were too strong for a company that produces only herring to be of interest to stores. The original recipe for herring fillets, which did not use the so-called “ripening intensifiers”, which speed up the salting process and simultaneously dissolve small bones. Fish cooked without “ripeners” has a taste more familiar to the Russian consumer and does not spread when cut with a knife. "We have made these qualities competitive advantage. I taught managers to talk about the fact that we do not use “ripeners” and show small fish bones present in the fillet as evidence. The logic is simple: if a substance can dissolve a bone, then it is unlikely that it is good for our health,” explains Svetlana Fedoseeva. As a result, the company was allowed into stores, and in 2000 it was already selling 1 million packages of herring per month.

Everyday delicacies

IN 2000, one of the founders of the company left it for the civil service. Andrei Vorobyov became an assistant to the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, and two years later he sold his share to his younger brother. In the same year, the company dared to conduct an experiment on the domestic market - it began to produce smoked red fish, popular in the West. The situation on the market generally contributed to the constant expansion of the assortment: the demand for seafood and fish began to grow by 20-30% per year since the early 2000s. In 2004, the company launched the production of pollock caviar and seafood preserves, and in the last two years, Russian Sea has increased its range with premium products - for example, Mediteran seafood preserves (squid, mussels, shrimp and octopus in various sauces and fills) and caviar of capelin "Umaisagi". "We visit regularly international exhibitions Let's see what's new. We take note of the best samples, adapt them to the tastes of Russian buyers and release them to the market,” Svetlana Fedoseeva explains the technology.

Experts are confident that the company has chosen the right strategy. “The largest growth in consumption is shown by seafood: mussels, squids and all kinds of cocktails, the popularity of salmon species continues to grow - salmon, trout. Moreover, fish delicacies are gradually moving from the holiday diet to the everyday one,” says Natalya Fedorenko, head of the marketing department at the Marina company, which processes fish and seafood.

deep sea

SINCE THE BEGINNING of this year, a cat has been telling Russian consumers about the merits of Russian Sea products from TV screens. The new advertising campaign, the slogan of which is “Russian Sea is a seafood restaurant in your home”, was developed by the McCann Erickson agency. “The character came to mind immediately. Who is the main fish expert? Of course, a cat, ”explains the idea of the video, agency copywriter Alexandra Pakhomova.

The company expects that product line expansion and advertising support, which is estimated to cost about $10 million a year, will help maintain the company's growth momentum, which took place in 2007, when revenues almost doubled to $640 million, compared with $350 million in 2006.

But there is no longer enough own money for the development of the company. Therefore, in June, the Russian Sea placed bonds for 2 billion rubles. at a rate of 9.5% per annum for five years, although analysts predicted no less than 12-13%. “Let's be honest: the company was lucky over time - there was an excess of liquidity in the banking system. Now this will not happen again,” says Tatyana Bagrovskaya, an analyst at BrokerCreditService Management Company.

Most of the money raised went to finance working capital. “It was summer, we had to buy caviar and fish for the whole season. In addition, we decided to build a second plant in Noginsk, which required another 350–380 million rubles, and part of the funds went to create our own aquaculture,” says Dmitry Denezhkin. In 2007, the company bought the Segozerskoye farm in Karelia and began commercial trout farming there. Russian Sea has already invested about $8 million in the project. The company's management promises that 3,000 tons of fish will be grown in Karelia in the near future. So far, this is a trial balloon - more than 110 thousand tons of trout from Norway and Chile are annually imported into Russia.

According to the company, bonds are only the first step on the way to publicity. In 2009, Russian Sea is to go public. “So far, all growth occurs exclusively organically. We do not have separate investment capital that we could use to acquire businesses or finance large-scale projects. But such capital can be obtained with the help of primary placement,” Denezhkin has no doubts.

To enter the IPO, the company has yet to prepare IFRS statements and completely reorganize the structure. Today, the Russian Sea, which is engaged in production, and the Russian Fish Company, which continues to supply Russian and imported fish to the regions, are formally not related to each other at all.

The management of the Russian Sea is in no hurry to make forecasts regarding the amount it expects to raise. In response to the question of what the money will be spent on, the heads of departments begin to memorize plans: increasing the assortment, expanding the distribution network of the Russian Fish Company, which has grown from 23 to 40 branches this year alone, building another processing plant, creating a large logistics center in Noginsk, an increase in the capacity of the Segozerskoye farm. But these are all flowers. Well, the desired berries are nothing less than a struggle for leadership with global companies.

Catch up with Norway

LAST summer, Russian Sea almost acquired a foreign shareholder by signing a preliminary agreement to sell a 20% stake in Austevoll Seafood ASA, one of Norway's largest fish companies. However, at the end of August the deal fell through.

“In the process of negotiations, it became clear that we were worth more than originally agreed, so we took advantage of a formal pretext and withdrew from the deal, promising to return to it in 2008,” says Dmitry Denezhkin. According to him, attracting investors does not cancel plans for an IPO. On the contrary, one of the conditions set by the Norwegians is the transformation of the Russian company into a public one. But so far, Russian Sea believes that they rushed to find a partner: the company is growing too fast to sell it at a fair price.

However, the Norwegians should hurry with their proposals. The leadership of the Russian Sea itself dreams of reaching the international level. Thus, Dmitry Dangauer considers the opening of subsidiaries of the Russian Fish Company in neighboring countries to be a matter of two years. In 2008, the entire group's revenue should rise to $1.2 billion. Thus, the company will leave its main Russian competitors far behind and begin to compete with international corporations. The world's largest fishing company Marine Harvest, for example, has a revenue of just over $2 billion in 2006. The Russian Sea believes that in five years they will also be able to achieve this figure.