YEREVAN. – In the short term, Russia will need to source additional seafood from countries unaffected by its own embargo, Pal Aandahl, Market analyst at Norwegian Seafood Export Council, told Armenia News – NEWS.am.

Turkish or Tunisian seafood will hardly be able to fully substitute Norwegian fish exports to Russia, he added.

“However, I think there will be huge opportunity for export of all kinds of seafood for countries not harmed by the ban”, he said.

Russian fisheries and farms will not be able to feed domestic customers alone, and the country will have to procure seafood from other producers, Aandahl added.

“There is at increase in seafood demand in Russia, and it will be very difficult for Russia to supply this demand by domestic production, both in short and long term”, he emphasized.

Earlier Alexey Aronov, head of the Association of Fish Processing and Trading Companies of Russia, had told local media that Norwegian salmon accounted for 95% of the Russia chilled fish market, and would be hard to be replaced with domestic resources.

At the same time, the Minister of Agriculture of Russia, Nikolay Fyodorov, said that Russia can bridge that gap, itself being a net exporter of fish and seafood (exporting 1.8 million tons and importing 600-700 thousand tons).

Russia is the paramount export market for Armenian fish farmers. In the first three quarters of 2014, Armenia has exported 1,635 tons of fresh and chilled fish, exclusively to Russia.