Sri Lanka has asked Russia for fishing vessels, specialised equipment and investment in harbours and cold storage, in a bid to modernise its deep-sea fishing sector and widen access for Sri Lankan seafood in the Russian market.
The requests were made by Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar during a meeting on Monday with Levan S. Dzhagaryan, Russia’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, at the ministry in Colombo, the Daily Mirror reported.
What Sri Lanka is asking for
Chandrasekar said Sri Lanka wants to expand exports of high-value marine products — tuna, prawns and crabs — to Russia. The two sides went through the practical barriers to that: international quality standards, food safety requirements and the health certification procedures Russian importers require.
On the production side, the minister pointed to Russian technology, fishing vessels and specialised equipment as a route to modernising deep-sea operations, arguing that better handling technology is needed to cut post-harvest losses and hold catch quality.
He also raised Russian investment and technical assistance for fishing harbours, cold-storage facilities and marine-product handling infrastructure.
Moscow’s response
Dzhagaryan reaffirmed Russia’s interest in expanding economic and trade cooperation with Sri Lanka, including greater market access for Sri Lankan seafood and increased investment and technical cooperation in fisheries.
Newswire reported that the two sides also agreed to foster collaboration between research institutions on sustainable fish-stock assessment, and to explore capacity-building and training programmes for Sri Lankan fishermen and fisheries officials.
No agreement value, timeline or binding commitment was announced, and neither account set out a next step beyond continued discussion.
