On April 11-14, 2022 the 5th International Exhibition of Fur and Leather Products "Soft Gold of Russia" is being held in the city of Pyatigorsk.
As part of the business program of the exhibition, a two-day business dialogue was organized, which was attended by representatives of ministries and heads and specialists of organizations and companies engaged in the production and sale of fur skins and fur products, designers, retailers, representatives of international fur auctions.
In a mixed format of face-to-face participation and videoconference the participants of the event discuss modern fashion trends and online sales of natural fur products, the state and prospects of development of cellular fur farming, the role of science and HR in the fur industry of Russia.
The key event of the business dialogue was the discussion "Fur business in Russia, the state and prospects. The State strategy of countering the illegal turnover of industrial products. Harmonization of the fur labeling project", moderated by Sergey Stolbov, President of the Russian Fur Union, one of the organizers of the event.
Sergey Krynin, Minister of Economic Development of the Stavropol Territory,
Dmitry Tugushev, Deputy Director of the Department of Apparel Industry and Timber Industry of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade,
Aron Mardakhaev, Chairman of the Board of MDC Soft Gold LLC,
Vugar Isaev, Chairman of the Board of SK Trade LLC (the Snow Queen Company), Director of the Department of the Legprom CRPT project Group were invited as speakers"
Anna Petrushina, President of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs in Textile and Apparel Industry
Andrey Razbrodin.
Analyzing the situation in the domestic fur industry,
Andrey Razbrodin expressed confidence that a certain window of opportunity is opening up for the industry today. The reason for this is the new vector along which foreign manufacturers are moving. For example, China is rapidly losing interest in everything that cannot be mass-produced, including the fur industry. For that country it was the mass production of mink fur that mattered, so they are significantly reducing their production. As a result, the market is freed up and ready to accept new players, which can become Russian manufacturers.
In addition a significant factor for the development of the industry is the close attention that the government pays to the textile and apparel industry as a whole. Speaking about such serious support, Andrey Razbrodin told the participants about the activities of the Russian Government in this direction, in which industry associations, and first of all
SOYUZLEGPROM, are seriously involved.
Just recently
Andrey Razbrodin has taken part in a number of events and meetings: chaired by Prime Minister
Mikhail Mishustin, by First Deputy Prime
Minister Andrey Belousov, chaired by the Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. Meetings with the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Oleg Bocharov, who oversees the industry, are held weekly on an ongoing basis.
Andrey Razbrodin said that the main purpose of such events is to develop practical and effective measures to support the textile and apparel industry. And an important role in this process is played by the operational headquarters specially created by Soyuzlegprom, which coordinates the interaction of business and government agencies, analyzes the effectiveness of measures already taken, develops an understanding of what measures are still needed.
"Today, the ideology of the government has split into two parts," Andrei Razbrodin said. – The first is the current situation, the need to support the current state of the industry. The second is the need to develop measures for moving forward and development in the process of this support. I will give a concrete example: I was already at a meeting today where we discussed – and I hope it will be adopted soon – a program to support the wool industry, which goes exactly the same way as the fur industry, that is, from the very bottom, from production, and is divided between two leading ministries - the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
They also considered the idea of selling through a single window, that is, the creation of a wool auction – and in the fur industry such mechanisms already exist in Russia, this can be used; and the issue of subsidies for Russian producers in the purchase of Russian wool. That is, a whole subsidy program has been developed, and I think we need to do the same in the fur industry, that is, for manufacturers of finished products, we need to delop a program to subsidize the purchase of raw materials and materials for production."
Andrey Razbrodin called on all participants of the business dialogue to use the opportunities that the current situation has opened for the industry, and in the future, in cooperation with the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs in Textile and Apparel Industry to create a joint program for the development of the fur industry, which SOYUZLEGPROM will promote at the level of the Russian Government.
