Vitebsk Fur Combine intends to create a new production facility with a fur farm

April 7, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. RUP "Vitebsk Fur Factory" plans to create a modern fur production facility on new premises as a single complex with its own animal farm. The director of the enterprise, Sergey Losev, informed a BELTA correspondent about this. The investment project with an estimated cost of about $58 million is included in the enterprise's development business plan for 2011-2015. In addition to modernizing production and implementing innovative technologies, the project implementation will allow the factory to switch to a full-cycle operation (from raising fur-bearing animals to producing finished goods) and increase the depth of raw material processing to 90%. This, in turn, opens up opportunities to enhance the enterprise's export potential by saving financial resources on raw material procurement, Sergey Losev noted. Project financing is expected to come from credit resources, and currently, the enterprise is negotiating with Chinese investors. According to preliminary calculations, the planned animal farm will be designed for 30,000 mink breeding stock and about 15,000 Arctic fox and fox breeding stock. By 2020, such a farm will allow increasing the number of young mink to 100,000 heads and young Arctic foxes and foxes to 40,000 heads. This will fully satisfy the factory's raw material needs and also create an opportunity to export part of the raw materials in the future. A proprietary raw material base will allow increasing the share of mink in the fur-bearing animal population structure from the current 20% to a prospective 70%. Overall, the implementation of the investment project involves increasing the annual skin processing volume to 70,000 pieces by 2015, enabling the enterprise to achieve profitable operations and increase product profitability to 20%. By 2015, the enterprise plans to increase the production volume of industrial products and consumer goods by more than one and a half times, as well as increase the share of exports in the total structure of finished product sales to 40%. RUP "Vitebsk Fur Factory" is part of the "Bellegprom" concern and is the only state-owned enterprise in the country specializing in the processing of fur and sheepskin raw materials, as well as sewing products from processed skins. The product range includes over 50 items and includes fur hats, women's coats, half-coats, vests, mantles, jackets, overalls, sheepskin coats, as well as children's wear made from sheepskin and rabbit. Models are developed in the enterprise's design studio, taking into account modern requirements for such products. The factory's products are import-substituting. The factory was declared economically insolvent in 2007 and underwent a rehabilitation procedure, which was completed in April 2010. -0-