On January 9, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Polotsk Dairy Plant invested Br17 billion in its fixed capital in 2011, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the enterprise director Vladimir Yatskevich. The year 2011 was fruitful for the Polotsk enterprise: the plant managed to implement plans aimed at expanding the range of manufactured products, mastering new types, and strengthening its image in domestic and foreign markets, the director noted. The latter is due to obtaining the LST EN ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System and LST EN ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety certificates for skimmed milk powder. The document, issued by a Lithuanian certification body accredited by the National Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania and authorised by the EU to conduct audits and issue certificates of conformity to European quality and safety requirements, confirms the high quality of skimmed milk powder produced at Polotsk Dairy Plant. As Vladimir Yatskevich noted, the modernisation projects have significantly strengthened the plant's technical base. For instance, in March, the plant launched a line for the production of aerated dairy products. The capacity of the Belarusian-Polish-German equipment allows for the production of 250 kg of finished products per hour. In August, the project for bottling dairy products in PET bottles was completed. Currently, the enterprise fills milk with a fat content of 1.5%, 2%, 3.2%, 5%, as well as bio-kefir (1.5% fat content) and kefir (2.5%) into PET bottles of 0.95 L capacity. The bottling line capacity is 6,000 bottles per hour. The cost of the Bulgarian-Italian equipment exceeded 1.5 million euros. A separate workshop of the plant was reconstructed to install the PET bottling line. Subsequently, equipment for ultra-pasteurisation of milk was also installed there, which allowed the plant to increase the shelf life of dairy products from 10 to 20 days and, consequently, enhance its export potential. Also, in the past year, the enterprise acquired new equipment for butter packaging and began modernising the boiler house, which will be one of the plant's priority tasks in 2012.