USSR FOOD INSUTRY CITES POSTWAR RECOVERY, DEVELOPMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700070120-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 120
• Publication Date: June 18, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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REPORT
CD NO.
DATE OF
HOW DATE DIST. I $ Jun 1952
PUBLISHED Book; semimonthly and bimonthly periodicals
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow NO. OF PAGES 7
DATE
PUBLISHED 1950 - Feb 1952
COUNTRY i ss
SUBJECT Economic - Food industry
LANGUAGE
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SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
[Numbers in parentheses refer to appended sources .7
Relocation and Investment
During the prewar Five-Year Plans, construction of powerful meat trusts,
sugar plants, and fats and oils plants was begun in the eastern part of the
USSR. After the war, although the greater part of the food industry's ':api-
..al investment was spent in reconstruction of enterprises which had suffered
as the result of temporary occupltion and military action, construction of
food enterprises in the east continued. Because of the wider distribution of
enterprises, the shipment of many goods from Moscow, Leningrad, and the Belo-
russian SSR was eliminated. The tobacco industry raised the proportion of
cigarette production in eastern consumption areas to 35 percent of total pro-
duction and reduced cigarette exports from the central part of the country.
The tota:_ capacity of the new eastern sugar plants constitutes 11 percent of
the entire capacity of the sugar industry. During the postwar Five-Year Plan,
the fats and oils industry increased production capacities of the fats and oils
plants in Central Asia 1.5 times. A wider distribution of enterprises has also
been taking place in the salt, beer, alcohol, and canning industries.(l) Dur-
ing the Mar years, the food industry built and put into operation more than 120
sugar, fats and oils, alcohol, canning, confectionery, and tobacco enterprises
in eastern US .(2)
In the 1945 - 1950 Five-Year Plan, more than 9 million rubles of capital
investment were allotted to restoration and construction of enterprises of the
Ministry of Food Industry USSR. With this sum, the industry was able to restore
and build more than 800 large-scale enterprises vnd shops, and consequently was
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STATE
ARMY
NAW
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CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM.
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
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Equipment and Techniques
In the postwar period, the food industry received tens of thousands of
units of technological equipment, a great number of assembly lines, loading
and unloading machines, and other mechanisms.(1) The number of refrigeration
units increased six times over 1940, and total refrigeration production
capacity in -,ised five times. Maximum utilization of refrigeration in the
food industry is of paramount importance. All branches of the food industry
need refrigeration, not only as a bet'-er means of preserving products, but for
use in many technological processes.
Due t, the development of socialist -ompetition and utilization of advanced
techniques, labor productivity of food enter;, uses increased during the postwar
Five-Year Plan. The output per worker was raised 40 percent as a whole by the
industry during this period.(2) The increase for individua? industries were as
fellows: sugar P. times, bread-baking and :aiming 50 percent, and fats and oils
100 percent. In 1950, food industry labor productivity was 105.8 percent of
the 1940 level; in 1951, it increased 6.5 percent over 1950.
However, there are a number of enterprises not fulfilling the plans set
for them by the government. For example, in the wine-making industry, more
than 10 percent of the total number of enterprises did not fulfill the 1951
production plan. In individual enterprises, losses are large because of waste-
ful expenditures, poor storage of raw materials, and failure to eliminate mis-
management.(1)
Production and Sale'
In 1950, the sale of food products in state and cooperative stores, ex-
cluding the sale of goods produced from local raw materials, increased over
1940 as follows: meat and meat products 38 percent, fish products 51 percent,
butter 59 percent, vegetable fats art oils 67 percent, sugar 33 percent, con-
fectionery goods 34 percent, etr.
In 1950, the prewar level, of production of food products was exceeded as
follows: sugar 17 percent, butter 57 percent, vegetable oils and other fate
10 percent, meat 7 percent, sausage products 20 percent, canned goods 48 per-
cent, confectionery goods 23 percent. margarine 63 percent, cigarettes 25
percent, fish catch 27 percent, vitamins 9 times.
The ood industry plan for the first half of 1951 was fulfilled 104.8
percent, and for the third quarter of 1951, 109 percent.(2) In 1951, the sale
of food products in government and cooperative stores alone (not counting the
kolkhoz market) increased over 1950 a' follows: butter 10 percent, vegetable
oils 40 percent, sugar 29 percent, canned goods 27 percent, sausage products
29 percent.
In .1951,production of food products increased as follows over 1940:
sausage products and smoked meat 1L2 percent, smoked fish 127 percent, canned
fish 278 percent; loaf bread and small bread products 210 percent, wrapped
candy 207 percent, refined sugar in packages 198 percent, margarine in small
packages 45 times, tea in small packages more than 200 percent, packaged salt
156 percent, grape wine in bottles 150 percent, bottled beer 232 percent, and
packaged cigarettes 294 percent.
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Bread-Baking industry
Before the war, the USSR flour-milling industry was distributed as follows:
40 percent in the Ukx?ainian SSR, Northern Caucasus, and central chernozem region,
20 percent in the Volga Region, 20 percent in eastern regions, 5 percent in
Transcaucasia, and 5 percent in Moscow and Leningrad. Before the war, milling enter-
prises numbered nearly 150,000. Nearly two thirds of them were wind Iriven.(3)
In 1950, production cf prime-quality bread products from graded flour in-
creased 50 percent over prewar.(2)
As cf 1 January 1.952, the bread-baking industry had four times more im-
proved conveyer ovens, 1.6 times more dough-kneading machines, 3.5 times more
dough-separating machines, and 1.7 times more sifting machines than in 1950.
The following level of mechanization was obtained by the industry: dough-
kneading 95 percent, flour sifting 9? percent. dou.lh separation into pieces
65 percent, and bread baking in conveyer ovens 75 percent.(1)
Sugar Industry
The most essential problem of the sugar "beet industry is the length of thr
production season. Before the revolution, the production season of many sugar
beet plants lasted all in all only 60 or 70 days. The saccharinity of the beet
somewhat deteriorates when the season is lengthened. After s or 6 months of
storage, the saccbarinity of the sugar beet drops from 17 to 14 percent. In
order to lengthen the production season and still prevent the beet from spoil-
ing, it must be dried or frozen. However, the climatic conditions of the region.
must be taken into consideration. Beet preservat :on by means of the freezing
method can be used with much greater success in Western Siberia than, for example,
in the Ukrainian SSR, where the thaws could spoil the frozen beet.
The area planted to sugar. beets increased from 650,000 hectares in 1937
to 1,135,000 hectares in 1940. The gross harvest of sugar beets for that same
period increased from )8 mi.L1.on quintals to L64 million quintals in 1940 (the
greatest harvest vas in 1937, with 214 million quintals). Du-ins the Five-Year
Plans, the sugar beet began to be grown in new regions such as the Armenian,
Kazakh, and Kirgiz SSRs, Northern Caucasas, the ?.over Volga Region, the Bashkir
ASSR, Altai Kray, and Prlmor=4iy Fray.
In 1913, Rus:ta (within the boundaries of USSR as of 1937) produced nearly
10 million quintal= of ssugar; in 19" , it produced nearly 24 million quintals.
Up to the time of the wax, 20 new sugar beet plants had been constructed.
Of these 20, the following plants were built in new sugar beet regions; the
Biysk and Aleysk plants in Altai Kray, the Merkinskiy and Taldy-Kurgansk plants
in Kazakh SSR. the Plant imeni Frunze in the Kirgiz SSR, the Agars Plant in
the Georgian SSR, and the Plant imeni Kalinin in Voroshilovsk in the Far East.
The climatic and soil conditions of these regions are very favorable for sugar
beet cultivation. The new plants were constructed with a sugar-beet-.processing
capacity of 8,000.12,000 quintala a day and higher. The total productive
capacity of '1 sugar beet plants in the new regions was nearly 100,000 quintals
a day. During the Five-Year Plans, the following plants were constructed in
old sugar beet regions: the Plant irreni Stalin in Polt-va Oblast, the Kupyansk
Plant in Kharkov Oblast, the Shri:lyenakiy Plant in Kiev Oblast, the Ertelevskiy
Plant In Voronezh Oblast, and the Zherdevskiy Flant in Tambov Oblast. The Kazakh
qnd Kirgiz SSP- ir- r cr.= mcroniq'7v spited to cultivation of the sugar beet.
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The distribution of sugar -beet -plant production before the war was as
follows:
Ukrainian SSR
75.8
Center
17.6
Kirgiz SSR
2.4
Northern Caucasus
1.5
Kazakh SSR
1.8
Far East
0.5
Volga Region
0.4
100.0
The sugar industry suffered greater losses from the war than any other
branch of the food industry. During the war years, nine sugar beet plants were
constructed in the east as a base for evecuat,d equipment and equipment recently
produced by Soviet machine-building plants. USSR sugar production was greatly
retarded as a result of the war. Sugar production in 1945 was on a level with
that of 1930 - 1932. Restoration of plants was begun in the fira? postwar year.
By the beginning of 1946, 175 sugar plants had been restored. ear.
The 1946 - 1950 Five-Year Plan provides for construction of ten new and
92 completely restored plants. The 1950 sugar production will amount to 24
million quintals, i.e., prewar level, and will be almost five times greater than
1945 production. The total number of plants will- be brought up to 223 by the
end of the postwar Five-Year Plan.(3)
During the sugaY-processing season of .1950, the industry had 210 sugar
plants in operation. New techniques changed labor conditions in sugar plants
and made possible higher production indexes as compared vich :.940. This is
apparent from the following data-.
Percent of Weight of Beets
1940 1950
Sugar yield
1?
Sugar loss 14.o5
Residual sugar 0.97
agar content in syrup 2.27 2X6
Expenditure of fuel ,5ic7 9.64 9.56
Production of packaged sugar cubes in 1950 increased 1.5 times over
1940.(2)
The sugar yield from beets has been raised 105 percent as compared with
prewar.(1)
Meat Meat Industry
In 1913, Russia had nearly 10,000 meat enterprises, of which only 13 were
large-scale slaughterhouses having stone buildings, water supply, and sewerage
system. More than a thi=3 c is ?.a c' poi
lon:_ed to _ity estab-
clishmentonstructa.edLuring rt.- F+.ve -'ear i''.-i mc:e than 30 meat combines were
.
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Before the war, the Moscow Combine processed more than 11,000 head of
cattle a day. The dimensions of this enterprise are cs follows: it occupies
an area of 56 hectares, has 26 kilometers of livestock runway, and consumes
nearly 160 million vedro (one vedro equals 12.299 liters) of water a year. The
Leningrad Combine, which was put into operation at almost the same time as the
Moscow Combine (1913), is the same type of enterprise.
The distribution of USSR meat production before the war was as follows:
nearly one sixth was located in Moscow Oblast, nearly one eighth in Leningrad
Oblast, nearly one third in the Ukrainian SSR, nearly 6 percent in the Kazakh
SSR, and approximately 12 percent in Western Siberia. New meat combines were
built in the Northern Caucasus, the Volga Region, the Urals, and in Western
Siberia.
According to the 1939 census, there were in the JSSR 82 cities with a
population of more than 100,000 people and 174 cities nith a population of more
than 50,000 people. Since the average yearly censumptioi, of meat for one man
is about 60 kilograms, approximately 6,000 metric tons of meat would be needed
for a city of 100,000 inhabitants and a meat combine with a production capacity
of nearly 3,000 metric tons of meat a year is needed for a city of 50,000 in-
habitants. Accordingly, during the 19L6 - 1950 Five-Year Plan~41 meat combines
must be restored and enlarged and 36 new meat combines constructed.(3)
Fish Industr
The fish catch in Russia in 1913 consisted of approximately 8.5 million
quintals. About two thirds of the catch came from the Caspian Sea, with 10 per-
cent from the Azov-Black Sea Basin, nearly 7 percent from the European North,
and nearly 10 percent from the far eastern basins.
The prewar fish catch was nearly 16 million quintals. Distribution by
regions was as follows. nearly one third in the Caspian Sea and nearly one
fifth in the Azov-Black Sea Basin. In reducing the role of the Caspian Sea,
the proportion of fish catching for the northern basins increased sharply (the
Barents and White Seas increased to 18 percent as compared with 12 percent in
1913; the proportion of the Far East increased to 23 percent as compared with
12 percent in 1913).
The 1946 - 1950 Five-Year Plan specifies the increase in the country's fish
catch by 57 percent over 1940. In 1950, two times more fishing trawlers will
be in operation in the north than before the war. In the far east, the fish
catch must be increased 2.5 times. In 1950, it will comprise more than one third
of the total fish catch for the country.(3)
Canning Industry
During the Five-Year Flans, the Soviet :arming industry was extensively
developed. Before the war, the average annual capacity of an enterprise in the
USSR consisted of 20 million jars.
The temporary occupation of a number of regions of the country inflicted
great damage on the canning industry. The largest canning combines, imeni
Stalin in Kherson and imeni Mikoyan in the Crimean, Stanitsa in Krasnodar Kray,
as well as large plants in Odessa, Krasnodar, and Kropotkin were destroyed.
Three fourths of all technological equipment of the canning industry was put
out of commission. During the war, eight new canneries were constructed in
the eastern regions of the country.( )
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The 1946 -- 1950 Five-year Plan assignment for the restoration of 24 can-
neries and the construction of seven new canneries has been fulfilled on the
whole.(2)
Fats and Oils Industry
In 1913, the fats and oils industry of Russia produced nearly 480,000 metric
tons of vegetable oils. In 1940 the Soviet fats and oils industry produced
nearly 700,001: metric tons of vegetable oils, i.e., almost 1.5 times as much
as in 1913.
The zone of military operations encompassed that of the fate and oils in-
dustry. Out of 148 fats and oil-- plants, 91 plants fell into the zone of oc-
cupation. Of these, only three plants, with a capacity of 150,000 metric tons,
were saved. During the war years, 12 new fats and oils plants were built in
the country's eastern regions, including the large oil-extraction plant in Chim-
kent.
In the 1946 - 1950 Five-Year Plan, oleaginous crops will be given greater
emphasis. The sunflower will take the leading place among the oleaginous crops,
as before the war. The gross harvest of the sunflower in 1950 must amount to
3.7 million metric tons as compared with 3.2 pillion metric tons in 1940.(3)
During the postwar Five-Year Plan, the number of hydraulic press plants
was reduced to a third of the number existing before the war. More than half
of all plants have been equipped with screw presses. The number of oil-
extraction plants has tripled. As of 1951, 67 percent of the total production
capacity of the fats and oils industry had been equipped with screw presses.
During the period from 1946 to 1950, the industry produced an additional 55,000
metric tons of oil without additional consumption of raw materials. The produc-
tion of a similar quantity of oil, using previously applied techniques, would have
required processing an additional 275,000 metric tons of oil seeds.(2) At the
end of 1951, 72 percent of the total production capacity of fats and oils enter-
prises had been equipped with the newest continuously-operating screw presses
and improved extracting machinery.(1)
Other Industries
In 1950, production of wrapped and packaged margarine had increased 19 times
over 1940. Packaging of margarine has been 25 percent mechanized.
In 1950, the production of wrapped candies increased 75 percent over
1940.(2)
In the confectionery industry, the number of wrapping machines is double
prewar, and wrapping is now 40 percent mechanized. In large confectionery plants,
individual production operations for wrapping, na,:kaging, and packing are mech-
anized. In the Krasnyy Oktyebr Confectionery Factory in Moscow, a mechanized
conveyer production line for wrapping filled caramels was installed in 1951,
thereby eliminating heavy labor-consuming operations with hot caramel masses.(1)
The enormous growth of demand for alcohol for technical use has sharply
altered the allocation ofalcohol production. In Tsarist Russia, 94 percent
of all alcohol was'used in the production of vodka; in the USSR, 75 percent of
all alcohnl is directed to technical needs. In 1950, as a result of the utili-
zation of new techniques, 900,000 decaliters of alcohol were obtained with no
additional consumption of raw materials. Normally, 33,1)00 metric tons of grain
are required to producc this quantity of ai~ohoi.12) In i9 1, 47,000 metric
tons of grain *ere saves ,s a ;esuit echrdicai f ess. fre alcohol yield
from potatoes has been raised 7 percent over prewar ti)
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.The salt industry stands out sharply from all other food industries in the degree
of mechanization attained. Present salt pumps are capable of extracting salt
from lake water at a depth of 5 feet, and have increased the removal of salt
from one square meter of lake surface to 5 metric tons. Mining processes for
both rock and lake salt have been 87 percent mechanized.
Tea industry facilities for preliminary processing of tea have increased
1.5 times over 1940. During the Fourch Five-Year Plan, eight new tea factories
were built and 14 more are still under construction.
In 1950, the total production of cigarettes increased four times over 1940
and production of packaged cigarettes doubled in comparison with prewar. The
capacity of cigarette-rolling machines has increased fear times over prewar.(2)
SOURCES
1. Moscow, Bolshevik, No 4, 1952
2. Moscow, Planovoye Ilhozyaystvo, No 5, 1951
Stepanov, P. N., Geografiya Promyshlennosti SSSR (Geography of USSR Industry),
Uchpedgiz, 1950, pp 188-206
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