Construction of a Flax Processing Facility Within the Safonovo State Industrial Park Is Proceeding According to Plan
An investment project related to construction of a flax processing facility located within the Safonovo State Industrial Park has been discussed by Governor Alexey Ostrovsky and Konstantin Klyuka, CEO of Promagro Agroindustrial Complex and Founder of Russian Linen Ltd. during the working meeting.
At present design documents of Russian Linen Ltd. have been approved by State Expert Examination Committee, as well as a building permit for construction of a flax mill has been received. Construction works are in progress: the building site with a total area of 30 hectares has been levelled and the territory has been cleared up, the first start-up facility has been complete (including two warehouses for keeping the flax straw, a laboratory and a weighing station). Nearly 400 tons of flax straw received from the private farms are currently being stored at the company’s warehouses. The quality of the flax straw has been acknowledged by the All-Russian Research Institute for Flax Production. The production is to be launched by the end of 2019.
Almost 1.5 billion roubles have been allocated to implement the project so far, more than 48 new jobs have been created at the plant (the headcount will reach 146 employees by the end of the year).
The company has started implementing its first sowing campaign: thus, in 2019 Russian Linen Ltd. is expected to sow 2,300 ha of fibre flax and over 100 ha are to be used for planting other crops to receive the seeds next year. For this 200 tons of fibre flax seeds have been purchased and 59 modern Russian and foreign-made machines for the soil tillage and sowing are being used. Another 30 units of machinery will be supplied to the plant by the end of the year.
The working meeting also concerned connection of the plant to the engineering infrastructure facilities; the possibility of receiving state support was also discussed with the government representatives. Governor Alexey Ostrovsky noted that all the measures of state support that are currently valid for the flax growing industry are available to the investor.
It should be recalled that construction of a flax mill was first announced during the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi in February 2018 as part of an investment project with the investments totaling to over 2 billion roubles. As a result, a large modern flax-processing facility which is the first similar enterprise in the country over the past 30 years, will be built in the Smolensk Region.
The new production facility serves to create competitive domestic products of high-quality focused on import substitution and export. Long fiber and cotton flax fiber considered to be most popular in the market, will be used as raw materials for the yarn production. The enterprise will give new jobs to more than 220 employees.