A Dairy Plant in Smolensk Will Resume Operation This December

Rosa, a regional dairy plant that was shut down five years ago due to the shortage of raw materials, is expected to resume its operation by the end of this year. This was announced during the meeting of Governor Alexey Ostrvsky with Andrey Timiryazev, the company founder, and Alexander Mandrusov, a plant manager.

According to Andrey Timiryazev, production is to be launched by the end of December 2019. The plant will start operating at full capacity by the end of 2020. Restoration of the plant within the region will bring 80 new jobs.

Due to the assistance of the region’s chief executive, this March the Ministry of Agriculture has approved an application by the Rosa plant for an easy-term investment loan needed to restore the dairy plant activities. The investments into the project will reach nearly 230 million roubles. The plant will process and sell dairy products; the product range will include 10 items, such as milk, kefir, cottage cheese, sour cream of various fat content, cheese and butter.

“We will have state-of-the-art equipment installed at the plant; the needed machinery has already been purchased and is currently being mounted. Renovation works have been fully completed, the plant is connected to all the needed utility systems (including the ones designed to supply electricity, heat, gas and ventilation). Three refrigerated storerooms have been rebuilt to keep raw materials, semi-finished and finished products. At the end of December we expect to launch our production, then we will be able to master technology and reach full capacity by the end of the next year,” commented Andrey Timiryazev.

The Governor entrusted responsible authorities to set up a meeting aimed to discuss further development of the dairy industry within the region and to present measures of state support for dairy farming, as well as to explore possibilities for motivating the Smolensk farmers to supply milk to the local processing enterprises.