453 
In the labor-scarce Soviet economy of the post-war era there was 
another comparative advantage the fishing industry had. In the same 
article, Mr. Mikhailov explained: ““To produce one head of beef 
requires 20 man-days, but the production of a similar amount of 
protein from fishery products would take only about 5-man-days.”’ 
It was thus clear to the Soviet planners that the fishing industry 
would provide animal protein with greater efficiency and more of 
it than if an equivalent amount of investment would be channeled 
into other food-producing sectors of the Soviet economy. 
The political and economic reasons for expanding the fishing indus- 
try have also been buttressed by the data of the nutritional scientists. 
The Soviet Institute of Nutrition of the Soviet Academy of Medical 
Sciences calculated that each Soviet citizen should consume on the 
average about 18.2 kilograms of fishery products per year to maintain 
the optimal nutritional balance. 
AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 
The consumption of edible fishery products in the Soviet Union, 
stationary during the first 30 years of Soviet rule, has kept pace 
with the increasing population ever since the early 1950’s (fig. 1), 
except when Soviet fishermen encountered an exceedingly difficult 
fishing season in 1971. That year their total catch was smaller than 
the year before and the average consumption, which had peaked 
in 1969 to 15.8 kg per inhabitant per year, began a 4-year decline. 
This unfavorable trend was reversed in 1973 when the upward curve 
of fishery products consumption resumed its vigorous pace. 
Table 1 gives the per capita consumption in figures furnished by 
the Soviet annual statistical yearbook, the Narodnoe Khoziaistvo 
(National Economy). It is one of the few sets of fishery statistical 
data regularly furnished by the Soviet Government.?’ Most of the 
early figures are not available. They must have been unimpressive: 
in 1950, the Soviet per capita consumption of fishery products was 
about the same as it was in 1913. From 1950 on, however, the 
increase was sustained with a short interruption during 1970-72. By 
1974, almost 17 kg of fish and other fishery products were consumed 
by the average Soviet citizen. In 1975, an important milestone in 
Soviet nutrition will be attained: the estimated consumption of over 
18 kg per person will have reached the level of 18.2 kg which the 
Soviet Institute of Nutrition proclaimed as the optimal level in 
balanced nutrition. 
The Soviet Government has encouraged the upward trend in the 
consumption of fishery products by writing it into the 5 Year Plans. 
In 1975, per capita consumption will lag considerably behind the 
planned amount. When the Ninth 5 Year Plan (1971-75) was first 
published, Soviet fishery planners projected a consumption of 21.7 
kg per person by 1975. The same figure was repeated in 1972 in 
an editorial published in the official publication of the Fisheries Minis- 
try °° as well as a year later by the Soviet Minister of Fisheries Ishkov 
himself. Mr. Ishkov wrote that the consumer demand in the Soviet 
Union, which apparently is somewhat above the optimal nutritional 
37 The others are: catch data and production of fishery commodities furnished to FAO in Rome, 
and truncated trade statistics available in the Soviet Foreign Trade annual. 
38 Rybnoe Khoziaistvo, February 1972, pp. 3-5. The anonymous writer stated unequivocally: “. . . 
by 1975, the edible fisheries consumption must reach 22 kg.” 
