India, Russia Boost Cooperation in Fisheries and Dairy Trade
Both sides explore deeper collaboration in aquaculture, market access and emerging technologies
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 5th Dec: India and Russia on Wednesday strengthened their partnership in fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy trade during a bilateral meeting held in New Delhi between Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Russian Agriculture Minister Oxana Lut. The talks took place on the sidelines of the 23rd India–Russia Annual Summit, coinciding with President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India.
Both sides reviewed opportunities to expand mutual trade, resolve market access issues and accelerate the listing of Indian establishments for export to Russia. India highlighted its USD 7.45 billion fish and fishery exports in 2024–25, including USD 127 million to Russia, and stressed the potential to diversify products such as shrimp, mackerel, sardines, tuna, crab and squid.
Russia expressed readiness to procure a wider range of Indian fishery, meat and dairy products and signalled interest in joint development of trout farming. India thanked Russia for recently approving 19 additional fisheries units on the FSVPS platform and requested expedited clearance of pending listings and early approvals in dairy, buffalo meat and poultry sectors.
The Indian side pressed for collaboration in deep-sea fishing vessels, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), Biofloc technology, on-board processing and value addition. Both sides agreed to explore cooperation in coldwater fisheries, genetic improvement and emerging aquaculture technologies.
India also proposed a structured mechanism through a Memorandum of Understanding to advance research cooperation, capacity building and exchange of experts, researchers and students. Russia conveyed interest in joint work on veterinary vaccine development, equipment manufacturing and animal disease management, as well as expanding university-level collaboration.
The meeting concluded with both sides reaffirming their commitment to deepen their Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership and build stronger trade and technology linkages across fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy sectors. Senior officials from the Departments of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, ICAR and MPEDA attended the discussions.
