Fish and Chips Chain Launched in Russia
05 Feb 2010 - They succumbed eagerly to Ronald McDonald. Mikhail Gorbachev once advertised pizza. Now Russians look set for another fast-food fad — fish and chips.
To save the country’s struggling fishing industry, the Government is encouraging people to eat more seafood and backing a planned chain of chip shops called Okean — the name of a famous chain of fishmongers during communist times.
Alexander Ivanov, who owns a fish-processing factory in Murmansk, on Russia’s northern coast, said that he would open 300 street kiosks in St Petersburg and up to 500 in Moscow before expanding into Siberia.
Cod and chips would sell for about £2.50, to compete with McDonald’s and other fast-food rivals.
“Fish, as a fast food, doesn’t exist in Russia so we are opening a completely new market. I really like English fish and chips and I’m sure it will be really attractive for Russians,” he told The Times. “We set up a fish-and-chip kiosk at a trade exhibition in Moscow and the lines of customers were as long as those we used to see outside Lenin’s tomb during Soviet times.
“It’s important that people can be patriotic and buy high-quality healthy Russian fish.”
Mr Ivanov plans to buy cod from Russian producers, boosting an industry that has struggled against cheap imports. This is despite abundant fish stocks around the country, and an 11 per cent increase in catches last year to 3 million tonnes. Poor wholesale and transport systems mean that Russian fish is often more expensive at markets than imports. Stalin managed to maintain consumption in his day by ordering restaurants and canteens to serve only fish on Thursdays.
The Federal Fisheries Agency used a campaign last year to urge Russians to buy more fish. Its head, Andrei Krainy, lobbied city councils to lease land to Okean. But officials insisted that the business would have to go to tender. Mr Ivanov said yesterday that the row was resolved and that his first kiosks would open soon.
TimesOnline
