ABERDEEN, August 7 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – Restrictions imposed by Russia in response to American and EU sanctions against Russia will have “extremely serious implications” for British fishermen, Bertie Armstrong, Chief Executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said Thursday.
“We recognize that this is a serious geopolitical issue, but the downstream impact will hit a number of business sectors including Scottish fishing,” the senior representative of the fishing industry in the UK said.
The UK exports around $29 million (£17 million) of frozen fish into Russia every year and Armstrong told RIA Novosti sanctions would have a serious impact on their sector with most of the UK fishing fleet based in Scotland.
“Russia is a very important export market for Scottish mackerel, and the denial of access would have extremely serious implications for both mackerel fishermen and the onshore processing sector,” he added.
“We will, of course, be keeping in close contact with the Scottish and UK Governments to monitor the situation as it develops, and also to discuss any support measures for the Scottish seafood sector should they be required,” Armstong said.
Earlier in the day, the Russian government published the list of agricultural products banned for import from the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway that have imposed sanctions against Moscow. The list includes beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, seafood, milk, dairy products, vegetables and fruit.
“The restrictions are imposed for one year starting from today, but if our partners demonstrate a constructive stance on issues of cooperation, the government is ready to review the terms of these restrictions,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
Medvedev added that attempts to make money on the import ban will be severely handled by Russian trade and agriculture watchdogs.
“I would like to warn everyone that attempts to scalp to make money on this situation will be handled severely,” the prime minister added.
