The company's director is appointed by 

 the Lithuanian Government. The current 

 incumbent is Valdas Trinkunas, a former 

 director of the Lithuanian meat-producing 

 combine. The management team is 

 reportedly well-trained and capable, yet it 

 could not prevent a loss of 1 billion rubles 

 (about US$ 4 million) in 1992, on the gross 

 revenues of 2 billion rubles. 



In early 1992, when Lithuanian 

 fishermen lost access to many of their 

 traditional fishing grounds, the company 

 leased 40 high-seas vessels to various foreign 

 countries to preserve them in good order 

 until sufficient catch quotas could be 

 obtained to make it possible for Lithuanian 

 fishermen to fully utilize the entire fleet. ^ 



The JURA company also owns 12 

 shrimp trawlers which operate in the Barents 

 Sea and off East Africa. Shrimp-processing 

 lines have been installed on all of them by a 

 Danish company. Most companies fish for 

 shrimp in the Barents Sea under a Danish- 

 Lithuanian joint venture. This J/V company, 

 established before the dissolution of the 

 former Soviet Union, apparently continues to 

 exist under the new Lithuanian Government. 

 It is not known whether the Russian 

 Government allows the company to fish 

 inside the Russian 200-mile zone, or whether 

 it operates only in international waters of the 

 Barents Sea. Two Lithuanian shrimp vessels 

 were leased to a Malagasy company and fish 

 off East African coasts. All shrimp landings 

 are frozen and exported for hard currency. 



in. FISHING PORTS 



The Lithuanian fishing fleet operates out of 

 a single port - Klaipeda - which has the 



advantage of being ice-free. Recently, the 

 European Community (EC) authorized bids 

 for the reconstruction of this port. 

 Companies from Denmark, the Netherlands, 

 France, Germany, Belgium, and the United 

 Kingdom competed for the contract. The 

 British consulting firm William Halerow and 

 the Belgian Antwerpen Port Engineering and 

 Consulting firms were selected. The project 

 is being financed by the EC and should be 

 completed in 8 months'". 



Klaipeda, Lithuania's only marine port, 

 serves both fishing and commercial 

 companies. A shipyard and two small vessel 

 repair facilities are also located in the port 

 area. The large BALTIKA Shipyard which 

 previously built large freezer trawlers 

 (BMRT) of the LUCHEGORSK class is 

 obsolete, and currently does repair and 

 maintenance work only." In September 

 1991, however, the Shipyard completed a 

 large floating dock for the Kamchatka 

 fishing industry.'^ There are plans to 

 modernize the Shipyard with up-to-date 

 equipment so that the construction of fishing 

 trawlers can again begin sometime in the 

 future. Government subsidies would be 

 needed, however, at least in the initial 

 stages, for these plans to be realized.'^ 



In the fishing port, there is also a fish- 

 processing plant, the BALTIJA. The plant 

 has a capacity of 20 tons of fish per day and 

 has several canning lines. The canned fish 

 are: jack mackerel (stavrida), Atlantic 

 mackerel, Baltic sprats, and other species. 

 The cannery cannot obtain a sufficient 

 amount of fish to keep the 600 employees 

 fully employed. Often they work only a half 

 day. However, full salaries have to be paid 

 to all the workers, and as a result the plant 

 is not profitable and is badly in debt.''* 



74 



