Faroese Premier eyes Russia as new seafood market – Fishupdate.com

Faroese Premier eyes Russia as new seafood market Published:  11 November, 2013

THE  Faroese Prime Minister, Mr. Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen has been visiting  Russia and neighbouring  Kazakhstan to promote trade relations between Faroese exporters and the Eastern European countries – with seafood high on the shopping list.

The move comes in the wake of the imposition of trade sanctions against the Faroese over its herring and mackerel policies which has provoked a strong reaction from Prime Minister Johannesen. He has accused the EU of bulling tactics and last week took the dispute to the World Trade Organisation for a ruling. The Torshavn Government is clearly keen to seek out new markets for its fish and farmed salmon.In recent years Faroese exporters have shown a growing interest in the Russian market. At the same time, demand in Russia for both salmon and pelagic fish products is on the increase.As part of the process for entering into a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Customs Union, Prime Minister Johannesen met with a number of relevant ministers. In Moscow, he met with Andrey Slepnev, Minister for Trade and Member of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission and Vladimir Titov, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In Astana in Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister was scheduled to meet with Timur Zhaksylykov, Vice Minister for Economy and Budget Planning.Previously Mr Johannesen was one of the main speakers at the opening session of the Arctic Circle conference in Reykjavik in which he stated that as a nation he saw the Faroe Islands as one of the stakeholders in Arctic co-operation, describing the EU sanctions move on how not to do things and as a divergence from how countries in the North Atlantic Ocean region usually co-operate.