For the first time in its 19 years of existence, the State Ocean Fishing Fleet has transferred UAH 13 million (USD 515,000) into the account of the State Treasury Service as the dividend on its operations in 2015.
The CFTS portal reported this, citing information from the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine.
The total profit of the state of ocean fishing fleet was more than USD 680,000 in 2015. The State Fisheries Agency focused attention on the fact that independent audits of enterprises that owned the fishing vessels were not performed from 2012 to 2015. This approach was changed after the change of management at the company. The auditing, which is performed by the BDO company, is currently in the final stage. The result of the audit will be published before the end of September.
Ukrainian companies currently own 11 ocean vessels, which fish off the coast of New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Mauritania, Namibia, and Antarctica. Of the 11 vessels, four are owned by the state – the Professor Mykhailo Aleksandrov vessel, the Captain Rusak vessel (owned by the state-owned Fishing Company SA), the Oleksii Slobodchykov vessel, and the Ivan Holubets vessel (owned by the Servis state enterprise).
As the CFTS previously reported, the State Fisheries Agency has announced that the four state-owned ocean fishing vessels may be privatized.
"This is currently being considered only as one of several proposals. we are trying to find options for financing industry reform programs together with the fishing industry, including attraction of investment in construction of new fishing vessels for inland waters, the Sea of Azov, and the Black Sea basin," the agency’s head Yarema Kovaliv said in March this year.
