February 2, Vitebsk /BELTA/. UP "Vitebsk Fur Combine" plans to organise the processing of leather semi-finished products (wet-blue, crust) and launch the production of leather goods in 2021, the enterprise director Sergey Betenya told a BELTA correspondent.
February 2, Vitebsk /BELTA/. UP "Vitebsk Fur Combine" plans to organise the processing of leather semi-finished products (wet-blue, crust) and launch the production of leather goods in 2021, the enterprise director Sergey Betenya told a BELTA correspondent.
The planned annual output of upper leather and split leather will be 200-250 thousand square metres of products, with the possibility of increasing it to meet market demands. Existing sheepskin processing equipment will be partially used to organise production. In addition, negotiations are underway to purchase new machines and mechanisms required for the production of leather goods for footwear, clothing, and leather haberdashery. Concurrently, issues of financing and raw material supply for the new unit are being addressed, including the study of domestic semi-finished product suppliers and the potential of foreign markets. The main criterion for selecting raw materials is the price-quality ratio, so that the fur combine can subsequently offer footwear companies leather goods that are competitive in terms of price, noted Sergey Betenya.
The implementation of the project will allow for the diversification of the combine's product line in the context of market conditions changes, which are influenced by climate warming and a shift in consumer demand towards artificial fur, explained the head of the combine. In particular, due to the warm winter in 2020, the volume of orders for shoe lining decreased by approximately 2.5 times, while the modernised capacities of the fur combine are designed to meet up to 70% of the needs of the "Marko" leather and footwear holding in this type of product during the peak season.
The unitary production enterprise "Vitebsk Fur Combine" was established in 1975. In 2013, it became part of the holding company "Belarusian Leather and Footwear Company "Marko". Following a large-scale reconstruction and modernization of the combine, a new European-level enterprise has been created with the organization of modern production for the processing of fur and sheepskin raw materials and the manufacturing of finished products from them. In December 2018, the fur combine was registered as a resident of the FEZ "Vitebsk" with a project to create transport infrastructure and organize an auxiliary unit for sewing sheepskin blanks and assembling footwear.