During his trip to Cherkessk, the prime minister visited wool and meat production. Photo: Alexander Astafiev/POOL/TASS
On Friday, Mikhail Mishustin visited Karachay-Cherkessia on a working trip. The prime minister was shown the production of wool and yarn, as well as a meat factory.
Karachay-Cherkessia is famous for this. Every third inhabitant of the republic either raises sheep or makes wool.
At the Vulkam enterprise, Mishustin was shown the full cycle of yarn production: from sorting unwashed wool and washing it to the production of combed knitted yarn. This is the only “woolen” enterprise in Russia with a full production cycle.
The main suppliers of raw materials to the enterprise are the peasant farms of the North Caucasus. The production capacities of the enterprise allow processing up to 3 thousand tons of unwashed wool, producing more than 900 tons of pure wool combed ribbon and a thousand tons of yarn.
Now the plant is undergoing modernization. A dyeing shop and a knitwear factory are being built.
As Mishustin was told, our own dyeing will allow us to compete with foreign yarn producers and reduce logistics costs.
– Do not have to carry to Belarus for coloring! Mishustin noted.
After modernization, the plant will be able to produce up to a thousand tons of dyed yarn per year.
– I want to thank you for an interesting tour. The yarn production process is complex, time-consuming and technologically innovative. It is very important that you are planning development, are going to create a new workshop, in fact, today you have already laid down and are designing a knitting factory,” Mishustin said.
The prime minister also took part in the video bridge and launched the Krasnogorsk hydroelectric complex, which consists of two small hydropower plants.
Mishustin noted that with their commissioning, the country’s energy system will become even more balanced. The construction of small hydroelectric power plants was started in 2019, in 2021 a solemn ceremony was held to start the flow of water from the Kuban River through the constructed new hydraulic structures of the Krasnogorsk small hydroelectric power plants (SHPPs). The Krasnogorsk hydroelectric facility will help smooth out fluctuations in the water level in the reservoir, which will allow other operating stations on the Kuban River to increase the generation of clean energy.
– Launch allowed! – Mishustin ordered, noting that the launch of these small hydropower plants is important for the economy and residents of Karachay-Cherkessia and the territories of the North Caucasus as a whole.
The prime minister recalled that the government continues to implement the state program to support renewable energy.
“We are thinking about increasing and stimulating the volume of construction, including small hydropower plants, which are carbon neutral,” said Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov.
The next in the program was a mutton factory. Mishustin inspected the cutting and packing shop.
“We support our livestock breeders, for the first time in many years the amount of meat produced for us exceeded what the Soviet Union produced,” Mishustin said.
Employees of the enterprise asked Mishustin to finalize the existing support mechanisms, taking into account the interests of small farms, since sheep breeding in the region has great potential. Mishustin promised that this issue will be considered at the government commission for the development of the North Caucasus, which will be held next week.
“We have a fairly large set of support tools: these are loans and support opportunities from the Ministry of Agriculture, in total, about 2 billion rubles are provided for sheep breeding this year,” Mishustin said.
