"I’m Sorry I Deceived You!" Fish Factory Boss Sneaks Into Press Conference To Ask President Putin For Help
Today's press conference was also notable for the confession of one of its participants. "I deceived you," he said. Chairman of the board of directors of a Murmansk fish factory pretend to be a journalist. He asked the sharpest question about the state of the fishing industry and prices for aquatic bio-resources in the country. As it was frequently said, these prices are unreasonably high.
Anastasia Efimova heard out the question and the answer and studied the issue.
Fresh-frozen codfish costs 230 rubles, fillet costs 450 rubles, cod liver costs 100 rubles. There's a varied stock of fish on the shelves in Murmansk if you're wealthy.
Boris Kulikov, a resident of Murmansk: "To be honest, the pension is too small. An average person can't afford to buy codfish, haddock, wolffish and particularly halibut and our local trout, etc. The stock is good but very expensive".
Mikhail Zub from Murmansk used a trick to speak out about this and propose ways to change the situation. For the press-conference with the Russian president, he was accredited as a journalist from Potrebitel (Consumer) newspaper. By the way, this isn't the first time he got caught in the lens. He did the same thing last year but had no chance to ask the question. Mikhail Zub put his cards on the table as soon as was given the microphone.
Mikhail Zub: “I lied to you. I'm not really a journalist. I'm the chairman of the board of directors at a Murmansk fish factory”.
Dmitry Peskov: This is bad.
Mikhail Zub: It is, I do agree with you. It's bad. Because we have been chewing the ground for three and a half years. We're trying to survive, and we know how to survive. We know how to turn around the fishing in the Far East. Fish for 52 rubles from the Far East will be sold for 80 rubles, and not for 300 rubles. In Murmansk, fish costs 300 rubles. It must be sold like chicken.
You can do what you want with me. Yes, I came here under false pretenses. I had to pretend to be a journalist.
Dmitry Peskov: Thank you for confessing.
According to Mikhail Zub, the biggest problem is the allocation of state quotas between the fishermen and the fish reprocessing plants. Mikhail Zub claims that the allocation is unequal and, therefore, unprofitable for the Russian market. So without local production facilities, the fish will have to be exported, instead of developing a domestic branch.
The Russian President shared this apprehension but warned not to do anything drastic.
Vladimir Putin: "On the whole, I share your concerns because if we don't provide a background for developing reprocessing facilities everything will be reprocessed abroad. New jobs will be created there as well as added value. And fish prices will remain high like today. The only thing in response was that any drastic actions in these interests can ruin the fishing altogether".
Today, facilities get these quotas by promising to develop productive capacity: to build fishing vessels or to create modern processing units which are a significant support of the business.
Anatoliy Evenko, Chairman of the management board of Fishermen Association: "To be honest, these things have already started to work. We use these quotas to build a vessel in Yaroslavl. We've already handed over the documents."
But the fish factory in Murmansk can get these quotas only with significant restrictions. The factory processed fish from abroad, mainly from Norway. And after imposing sanctions, it was sidelined. Furthermore, the capacity became out of date. Modernization is critical for a full-scale operation.
Factory operator: We don't have work, there are no people. When we worked with the Norwegians, we had capelin.
- But it was long ago.
- And that's it. And then after imposing the sanctions, everything stopped. Sometimes Lazurniy brought us fish.
- When was it last time?
- Last year.
So that the factory could count on quotas, Murmansk authorities did a favor. They changed the city development plan and allocated a plot space for building a new workshop
Dmitry Filippov, head of Murmansk: "Of course, as the head of the city I support the decision to have such a factory. And then everything will depend on the factory's management. How will they do this? How will the factory work? Of course, we'll need to talk to them."
The investment plan of the factory includes even the building of fishing vessels and, of course, new jobs for residents of the region. However, all this is in the long term.
Mikhail Zub, Chairman of the board of directors of a Murmansk fish factory: "I'm very happy. He said that the dialogue will go on. So we'll keep working in this direction."
This dialogue will go on in the nearest future, at the President's meeting. Mikhail Zub was personally invited to take part in this meeting.
Anastasia Efimova, Vesti.