Speaking at the opening ceremony, Viktor Zubkov said, in part:

"In recent years, the Russian fishing industry has shown good results. Our harvesting of marine resources and production of finished goods have been steadily growing, yielding 4.3 and 4.6 million tonnes, respectively, in 2010.

The market share and consumption of Russian fish products have been gradually increasing as well. Financial and economic conditions in the fishing industry have been improving, and the industry' investment attractiveness remains stable.

In 2010, fishing companies' balanced revenue totaled 11 billion roubles, with the share of profitable companies increasing to 76%. The industry contributed a total of 3.3 billion roubles in taxes and fees, and the average salary in the industry rose to 28,000 roubles.

This positive trend has been achieved through the joint efforts of the government, the business community, and fishermen. Some of their successful projects can be seen at today's exhibition.

While the production rate is steadily growing, we need to intensify our efforts to improve management in the industry. We need to further upgrade and modernise its fixed assets, reduce production costs, improve management, and create an efficient consumer supply infrastructure.

A good catch is one ingredient of that success, but its main criterion is the availability of diverse, high quality, and affordable fish products for consumers.

I know that these issues will be discussed during the business portion of the exhibition, and I expect participants to offer creative and constructive approaches and solutions.

Hopefully, the results of this first exhibition will contribute to its gradual transformation into an authoritative event and discussion platform, as well as a traditional meeting place for the fishing community, industry professionals, and government officials and experts."