A new e-commerce platform could add 50,000 metric tons of sales volume to the business of Russian Fishery Company (RFC), the country’s largest importer, according to the company’s CEO and co-owner.
Dmitry Dangauer told Undercurrent News that the Rusfishcom app, launched in five regions of Russia earlier this year, has allowed the company to set its sales target at 35 to 40 billion rubles ($525-$600 million) and 150,000 tons in the next three years, a significant increase from the 2017 turnover of $345 million and 100,000 tons of fish.
“Then, also, we can add in other proteins and products, as we have the platform and the distribution,” he said, during the WorldFood Moscow trade show, where Nakhodka Marine Fishery Base (NBAMR) and RFC were sharing a stand.
In 2016, Dangauer, Dmitry Kotsyubinskiy, and Sergei Darkin, the main shareholder of fishing giant NBAMR, bought RFC from Maxim Voboriev and now own a third of the company each. Voboriev sold his shares in RFC earlier this year and is now focused on Russian Aquaculture, the country’s largest salmon farmer.
“After the deal, we have done a big review of the business. We are the top part of a big pyramid when it comes to sales. We only have, say, 2,500 customers, who sell to others, who sell to others, down the chain. We don’t have anything to do with the final mile of delivery to the customer, at the moment,” Dangauer said.
“There might be 100,000 customers getting fish from us, but we don’t have any contact with them. So, I started to think, how can we reach them? We then miss out on the margin of all those sales down the chain. With the developments in internet and smartphone technology, we can start to capture this ourselves,” he said.
