Common carp is the main species to be farmed in Ukraine accounting for around 85% of the total farmed production.
Ukraine has 1.5m ha of water surface that can be used for fish farming. This includes freshwater reservoirs, lakes, and ponds as well as estuaries called limans in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The aquaculture sector in the country farms fish in different ways, in ponds, cages, and in recirculation systems.
One of the fastest growing fields is that of trout farming, which is concentrated in the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine. Here the availability of adequate volumes of high quality water has attracted entrepreneurs to establish trout cultivation facilities. The government is interested in encouraging this development and since January 2016 has abolished customs duties on fish feed, bringing down its cost considerably.
Sturgeon bred for meat and caviar
Sturgeon farming is another growing area. Different species of sturgeon, Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), beluga sturgeon (Huso huso), bester (Huso huso x Acipenser ruthenus), and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), are cultivated in recirculating aquaculture systems, cages, reservoirs, and ponds. The ten sturgeon farming companies in the Ukraine had a combined output of 165 tonnes of meat in 2014 and many of them are also producing caviar. Sturgeons are also being bred in state facilities, but these fish are produced for restocking purposes. In 2015 one of the state breeding facilities, the GU Production and experimental Dnepr sturgeon breeding facility, released 1.4m juveniles into the Black Sea. Sturgeons are not the only fish that are restocked. Both state-owned and private companies breed a variety of fish species for release into natural waters. In 2015 a total of 10.7m juveniles of sterlet, pike, pikeperch, silver carp, grass carp and common carp were released.
| Aquaculture production in Ukraine (tonnes) | ||||
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Common carp | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 |
| Goldfish | 904 | 1,170 | 1,175 | 995 |
| Silver carp | 1,441 | 1,737 | 1,618 | 978 |
| So-iuy mullet | 165 | 401 | 534 | 905 |
| Freshwater bream | 118 | 96 | 87 | 127 |
| Mediterranean mussel | 79 | 63 | 117 | 70 |
| Pike-perch | 83 | 86 | 66 | 43 |
| European perch | 121 | 47 | 82 | 21 |
| Other | &nb sp;55 | 53 | 41 | 37 |
| Total | 22,965 | 23,653 | 23,720 | 23,175 |
Selection used to create special strains of carp
Most farmed fish is produced in traditional fish ponds, where herbivorous fish, common carp, silver carp, bighead carp, and grass carp are the main species. About 25,000 tonnes of fish was farmed in these ponds of which carps constituted 90%, while other species such as pike, pikeperch, tench, and paddlefish made up less than 1%. Carp farmers were supported by the state-owned research facilities that selected and developed strains of carp such as the Ukrainian mirror carp and the Ukrainian scaled carp. These strains had a number of desirable traits including rapid growth, robustness, resistance to disease, a meaty body, and few scales.
Some fish, such as the silver carp, are sought after by the market, but are also very useful in keeping phytoplankton levels manageable in large water bodies. The reservoirs of the Dnepr need to be stocked with silver carp as the indigenous fish do not feed on phytoplankton and its unrestricted growth will affect the water quality, and thereby affect the fish and other organisms in the reservoir. As a result of their diet mature silver carp have a fatty acid profile similar to mackerel making it a particularly healthful fish to eat.
Research institutes play an important role
In the six years since 2008 aquaculture production in Ukraine, according to the FAO, has remained stable at around 24,000 tonnes, a figure the government would like to increase. The depreciation of the currency over the last few years has made imports of fish very much more expensive, which presents an opportunity to market locally-produced fish and fish products. Recently a number of legislative initiatives have been taken that should improve the climate for investment in the aquaculture sector, and clarify companies’ relationship with the state. Regulations that have been approved cover organic production, the creation of a register of water bodies used for fisheries or aquaculture, and the leasing of parts of water bodies for the production of fish or shellfish. The latter opens up the possibility of farming Black Sea flounder, Black Sea turbot, Pacific mullet and indigenous mullet species, oysters and mussels in the Black Sea. Although many of these species have not been produced commercially, research institutes have studied the techniques and have developed technologies to culture microalgae, shellfish, and fish.