Red caviar (Russian market)

2025: Production of red caviar in Russia for the year increased by 21% to 12.4 thousand tons

Salmon caviar production in Russia amounted to 12.4 thousand tons at the end of 2025. The figure increased by 21% compared to 2024. Data in February 2026 is provided by the Fish Union.

According to the published statistics, the increase in the production of salmon caviar species of fish is accompanied by a double-digit rate of decline in prices for it in wholesale. In retail, there is a downward trend in the part of pink salmon caviar. Prices for pink salmon caviar decreased relative to 2024 in both the wholesale and retail segments.

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Фото: Freepik

Sturgeon caviar production in 2025 amounted to 89 tons. The indicator grew by 9%. The volume of black caviar production was at the top of the range, which was previously predicted by the analytical center of the Fish Union.

The largest producers of salmon caviar in Russia:

• North-Eastern Company;
• «Tunaycha»;
• "Russian Fish World";
• "Meridian";
• "Okhotomorye";
• "Putin";
• "Nevod."

The Northeast Company was founded in 1997 and is one of the largest producers of salmon caviar in Russia. Meridian is one of the largest producers of finished fish and seafood products on the Russian market with an assortment of more than 300 positions.

In Russia, salmon is mined in Sakhalin, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and Murmansk. First, fishermen catch fish, and then, cooled or frozen, they are taken to factories for further processing.

In general, the production of fish products in Russia in 2025 amounted to 4.1 million tons. This is 3% lower than the level of 2024. In the Russian fishing industry, there was a moderate decline in the production of frozen fish, caused by an increase in the production of products of deeper processing.

Production of frozen fish decreased by 3% to 2.6 million tons. The production of fish fillet ice cream increased by 9% to 253 thousand tons. The production of canned fish decreased by 5% to 189 thousand tons. The production of preserves decreased by 11% to 101 thousand tons. The volume of production of ice cream crustaceans decreased by 12% and amounted to 99 thousand tons.^[1]

2024: Reduced salmon fish caviar production by 57.6% to 10.3 kt

The production of salmon fish caviar in Russia in 2024 amounted to 10.3 thousand tons, having decreased by 57.6% compared to 2023. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company Alto Consulting Group, released in October 2025.

The indicator has become one of the lowest in recent years. The Far Eastern Federal District remained the market leader, providing 77.6% of total production. The region supplies the bulk of its products to the domestic and foreign markets.

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Фото: Freepik

Analysts at Alto Consulting Group have identified the main factors that led to a sharp decline in output:

• Instability of the raw material base. Catch volumes directly depend on the natural reproduction of salmon. Biological cycles determine the availability of raw materials to processors.
• Fluctuations in catch volumes. Spawning cycles form the unpredictability of fish supplies to factories. Adverse spawning conditions in previous years have led to population declines.
• Difficulties in regulating the industry. Government regulation through quotas and catch control has a strong impact on producers. Production restrictions reduce the availability of raw materials.
• Export deliveries. The high interest of foreign markets affects the balance of demand within the country. Manufacturers focus on exports, reducing supplies to the domestic market.
• Underdevelopment of aquaculture. Dependence on natural reproduction makes the industry vulnerable. The lack of diversification of raw materials sources increases fluctuations in production.

For the period from 2022 to 2024, the average cost of salmon caviar among producers increased by 30.3%. The price increased from ₽2 976,766 per ton to ₽3 879,881,5 per ton. The rise in price also affected the final cost of products for consumers.

In May 2025, a decrease was recorded - the average price of producers decreased by 2.2% to the level of April and amounted to ₽5 333,020,8 per ton. This signals the possible start of market adjustment after a period of sharp rise in price.^[2]

2022: Cut production in by 27.1% to 9,636 tonnes

The production of red caviar in Russia in 2022 amounted to 9636 tons, which is 27.1% less than a year earlier. Such data in August 2023 was released by analysts at TK Solutions.

According to their estimates, the size of the salmon fish caviar market in the period from 2017 to 2022. grew by an average of 5.2%. The leading federal district of the Russian Federation for the production of salmon fish caviar is Far Eastern (87.7% of production for the period from 2017 to 2022), in second place is the North-West Federal District (share - 5.9%), the study says.

Production of red caviar in 2022 left 9636 tons

Ilya Shestakov, head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, warned about a sharp reduction in red caviar production in the Russian Federation in September 2022.

We catch less than in the even 2020. Accordingly, the forecast for the production of caviar is almost half as much, about 8-9 thousand tons will be according to the results of this [2022] year. Of course, for us, given the lack of supplies of Atlantic salmon, red fish to the Russian market, of course, it is important for us to provide at least wild salmon with the domestic market. And so that prices are available. Now, unfortunately, the price due to such a lean year has increased significantly, - he said then.

According to estimates by the analytical company Nielsen IQ, sales of red caviar in Russia from January to September 2022 decreased in physical terms by 7.5% compared to the same period in 2022. She does not give absolute numbers. For 8 months of this year, 514 tons of red caviar were sold in the country's largest retail chains, Rusprodsoyuz calculated. According to a representative of this organization, this is indeed 7% less than in 2021. At the same time, in monetary terms, sales of such products increased - by 2.1% to 1.9 billion rubles, according to Rusprodsoyuz. The average retail price of domestic red caviar in September 2022 amounted to 5,537 rubles per 1 kg, Rosstat reports.^[3]

2019: Imports cut to 180.7 tonnes

In 2015, red caviar supplies to the Russian Federation amounted to 492.6 tons, in 2016 they decreased to 326.0 tons, in 2017 - to 292.1 tons, in 2019 - 180.7 tons. The exception in this trend to reduce imports was only 2018 year, when the import of caviar in the Russian Federation was 1,034,2 tons.

The import of red caviar into the Russian Federation since the introduction in August 2014 of a ban on the import of caviar from a number of countries (primarily the EU, USA, Canada) is carried out only from Belarus (61.9% of supplies) and Armenia (38.1% of supplies). In insignificant volumes in 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, caviar also came from Japan.

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