455 
prominently announced by his boss, Minister Ishkov, only a few 
months earlier. In fact, his statement was made without any comment 
except to mention that the Soviet consumption of fishery products 
had increased to 16.9 kg from 15.4 kg in 1970. 
WHICH MINISTRY WILL SELL THE FISH? 
The consumption of edible fishery products has increased at a much 
slower pace than the per capita fisheries catch, indicating that much 
of the catch in recent years was either processed into fishmeal, or 
filleted with a resulting loss of offal. This, aboard Soviet vessels, 
is always reduced to fish meal. What percentage of the unused fish- 
eries catch is due to spoilage is not known. 
Soviet writers frequently point out that while the Soviet Ministry 
of Fisheries is responsible for Soviet catches until they are brought 
to shore and processed, the Soviet Ministry of Domestic Trade is 
responsible for the marketing of finished fishery products. Whatever 
little direct information is available on the Soviet marketing net, it 
all seems to indicate that the system is poorly managed and that 
much of the fisheries production is not being handled according to 
the latest technological and marketing practices. The fishery wares, 
which have been seen by various U.S. fishery delegations and other 
U.S. citizens traveling throughout the Soviet Union, indicate that the 
Soviets are much more successful in harvesting and processing the 
catch than in marketing it. There is but little doubt that the Soviet 
fisheries hierarchy is painfully aware of the fact that the Ministry 
of Domestic Trade is apparently unable to insure a rapid and universal 
distribution of wholesome fishery products. More than one-half of 
the finished products are sold frozen. Quick-frozen fish requires a 
much higher level of distribution and marketing technology than other, 
more traditional commodities (salted fish) which the Soviet fish- 
processing workers produced in the past. The Trade Ministry is 
ill-equipped in providing it. 
The debate between the Ministry of Domestic Trade and the Minis- 
try of Fisheries has been going on for years. It is difficult for the 
outsiders to penetrate the curtains of Soviet bureaucratic jockeying, 
but every so often one or the other Ministries obtains sufficient sup- 
port within the system (most often through Party connections) to 
vent their gripes in public. The Ministry of Fisheries has done so 
repeatedly. 
In late 1970, the Izvestiia correspondent Demidov described the 
controversy in the following terms.* 
During one of my recent visits to the Ministry of Fisheries, I was a witness 
to a talk between the Chief of the Administration for Resources, Deliveries, and 
Sale of Fisheries Production (Glavrybsbyt) E. Gromov and the Deputy Chief of 
Glavprodtorg of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of (Domestic) Trade, N. Ratushnii. It went 
about as follows: 
Gromov. The fleet is standing idle, the entire capacity is filled with fish, but 
your Organizations do not give orders for the acceptance of output. 
Ratushnii. You don’t give (us the data on) the right output. They don’t take 
the fish you offer; for example, some kind of hake. . . 
The contracting parties agreed that the Trade (Ministry) nevertheless would 
take ‘“‘some kind of hake.” I left the Ministry with perplexed feeling. I remembered, 
42 Izvestiia, December 20, 1970 (Demidov, P.: “‘Fish shortages in stores deplored”’). 
