SPECIAL EXPOSITION

Trout and salmon farming are becoming the most visible drivers of growth in Russia’s aquaculture sector, which has reached a plateau and now requires new development incentives. The industry needs a unified platform for sharing experience, reviewing performance results, and defining further steps to improve efficiency.

This is why the International Trout Forum is becoming a key event in the development of the aquaculture agenda. It will bring together major producers, heads of Russian regions, and representatives of friendly countries involved in the development of salmon and trout farming.

The main objective of the event is to exchange experience and develop promising areas of cooperation to ensure the most effective use of best practices among participants.

Topics to discuss:

• How do global climate and environmental changes affect trout farming in different countries, and which solutions have already proven effective and can be scaled across diverse natural conditions?
• Which production, marketing and export strategies enable trout farming to combine business sustainability with margin growth in international markets?
• Where is value added in the trout industry created across different countries: at the level of raw materials, processing, finished products, branding, marketing or market access?
• Which elements of the value chain: feed, stocking material, technology, logistics and processing, have the greatest impact on the competitiveness of the industry in different countries today?
• How do differences in natural and climatic conditions, including cold, warm and mountainous water systems, affect production costs, margin structure and export competitiveness in trout farming, and can a unified economic model for the industry exist?

The International Trout Forum will continue with a discussion of more specialized topics. Experts, business representatives, and scientists will focus on providing Russia’s aquaculture industry with the key components required for efficient production: equipment and technologies, feed, and stocking material.

An important aspect of the discussion will be assessing whether domestic production capacity is sufficient to ensure technological sovereignty, as well as considering the best ways to import essential components. Other elements of aquaculture business economics – such as logistics and processing – will also be addressed.

Participants in the roundtable will further discuss aquaculture ecology. As an industry develops, environmental considerations become a decisive factor in expanding its production potential.

Topics to discuss:

• Which components of the value chain such as feed, stocking material and equipment are already localized in Russia and where does international cooperation remain beneficial and/or necessary?
• What lessons has international experience provided to Russian aquaculture producers and which domestic technologies and developments have the strongest potential for export and international adoption?
• What is the potential of joint aquaculture and trout farming projects to improve key production indicators including juvenile survival rates, feed efficiency and reductions in losses during transportation and processing?
• RAS or “open-system” aquaculture – cage-based and flow-through tank systems – in trout farming: production profitability, biological risks, technological solutions, and the specific features of these business models when operating in domestic and export markets.
• How modern approaches to processing and utilizing aquaculture waste – including organic residues and processing by-products – affect the cost of trout farming and its environmental sustainability, and which solutions have already demonstrated economic efficiency.

Aquaculture in Russia remains one of the fastest-growing sectors of agriculture. At the same time, the recent stagnation in aquaculture production volumes highlights a number of challenges that need to be addressed in order to bring the sector to a new level of development.

Looking at global aquaculture practices, we can see that many of the leading aquaculture-producing countries have faced similar challenges. To varying degrees, these countries have managed to address the problems that emerged at different stages of the sector’s development or mitigate the impact of various limiting factors, enabling further growth in aquaculture production.

The Roundtable will bring together industry experts to discuss aquaculture development pathways in different countries, examine global trends and approaches, and explore tools for overcoming the challenges and limiting factors that inevitably arise in a rapidly developing sector.

In recent years, global science has made remarkable strides in the breeding and genetics of aquatic biological resources. Researchers have developed new strains of valuable fish, including fast‑growing sturgeon and salmonids with enhanced disease resistance.

However, the introduction of international sanctions has complicated access to foreign fish seed, which has been the foundation of Russia's fastest‑growing aquaculture sector, particularly for trout and salmon production. Russian fisheries science now faces serious challenges: the urgent need to accelerate the development of domestic research and technology infrastructure, to train qualified personnel, and to scale up successful breeding practices.

At the same time, new opportunities are emerging, including closer cooperation with partner countries and the localization of critical component production. This roundtable is intended to assess the current state of Russian genetics in the field of aquatic biological resources, identify key bottlenecks, and outline strategic priorities for the years ahead.

Key objectives:

• To assess the current level of import dependency in aquaculture breeding and genetics, and to identify the key drivers of growth
• To showcase cutting-edge scientific developments and practical case studies from Russian breeding centers and hatcheries
• To explore promising models of cooperation with international partners, including experience exchange, joint research initiatives, and technology transfer
• To develop actionable proposals for adjusting government policy and support measures with the aim of achieving technological sovereignty in breeding and genetics

Topics to discuss:

• What achievements by Russian geneticists in developing new fish breeds can be considered the most significant, and how competitive are they on the international stage?
• How realistic is it to establish a full-cycle production chain for aquaculture seed stock in Russia over the medium term, from fundamental research through to commercial-scale output? What steps would be required to make this a reality?
• Which breakthrough areas in genomics, such as genome editing and marker-assisted selection, hold the greatest promise for Russian aquaculture over the next five to ten years? What are the associated risks and ethical considerations?
• What forms of collaboration with international partners offer the most promising opportunities?
• What are the main gaps in the current regulatory and legal framework governing genetic research and breeding in Russian aquaculture, and what changes are needed to accelerate the uptake of innovation?