28 December 2018

Vladimir Putin Has Recognized Flax to Be One of the Main Perks and Sources of Pride for Russia

Vladimir Putin Has Recognized Flax to Be One of the Main Perks and Sources of Pride for Russia

During the annual media conference Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned that flax growing has always been a traditional type of agricultural activity in Russia.

Flax cultivation has had a long-standing tradition. This has always been our peculiar feature and pride. I will have a look at the current situation in the sector, because the problem is usually more complicated than it looks at first sight. I do not know what is currently going on there. If a new plant is needed for the industry development, we need to see what can be done,” said Vladimir Putin.

According to Vladimir Putin, industrial growth is generally higher than GDP growth, and amounts to 3% against 3.2% in the processing industry.

On the contrary, the Russian President has considered the intensity of industrial support to be insufficient. In this regard, the government have already outlined a number of programs to support individual industries. Thus, the support will reach 1,376 billion roubles by 2024 and will cover consumer goods industry, aviation, and defence industry. Next year it will be 450 billion rubles, and a year later it will be increased to 470 billion rubles.

It should be recalled that a flax cluster has been established in 2018 on behalf of Alexey Ostrovsky, Governor of the Smolensk Region. The cluster members backed by the Cluster Development Centre, are granted state support through co-financing of services aimed at business development and growth of the region's economy in this sector. Besides, a modern flax processing facility, which is the first in the country over the past 30 years, is being built here.

In addition to the flax processing facility, the project by Promagro Agroindustrial Complex and Russian Linen Ltd. involves construction of a flax straw processing plant and a yarn factory in the Smolensk Region, which will certainly give a boost to developing linen industry in Russia, as a whole. As a reminder, these agreements were reached last February during the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi as part of a working meeting of Governor Alexey Ostrovsky and Konstantin Klyuka, CEO of Promagro-Management LLC.