YAKUTSK, November 9. /TASS/. A new national project could be helpful in promotion of Arctic traditional sectors, a member of the Arctic Development Project Office (PORA) Expert Council Alexander Kugayevsky said on Tuesday.
"We need to have a national project - Unique Arctic Products - as a system of state, scientific, financial and economic, technical and technological, educational, regulatory, promotional and other measures for Arctic products," he said during the Expert Council's meeting.
Technology lag
According to the expert, in the 1990s, the country has lost a significant part of the natural resource potential, which the food complex of the North and the Arctic used to have. "Nowadays, the growth of traditional economic activities is hindered by a lack of sufficiently competent and developed system of state support, by a lag in technological development of traditional industries," he said.
Yakutia's indigenous peoples are mainly engaged in traditional industries - reindeer husbandry, fishing, he continued. The region has lost meat processing facilities and the fur trade sector. The level of technologies used in the North hinders the development of the Arctic.
For example, the North's indigenous peoples involved in commercial fishing use tourist and leisure boats that are not adapted for this activity. Only certain Arctic regions have civilized fish processing facilities, he said.
"Despite the preferences, the investment potential of Yakutia's Arctic zone has not been exhausted. The regional production is mostly the traditional economic activities of the North's indigenous peoples, traditional agriculture sectors and small and medium-sized businesses," Yakutia's First Deputy Minister for Arctic Development and Affairs of the Peoples of the North Sergey Neustroev supported the expert's opinion.
How to restore production
According to Kugayevsky, in order to promote Arctic products, it is necessary to form a brand as an immutable element of any significant product. "According to Finnish reindeer herders, it took them decades to promote reindeer meat to European markets. A Russian Arctic brand, despite the uniqueness of Arctic products, has not yet obtained a position even in the Russian product space," he said.
The profitability and attractiveness of traditional use of natural resources can be significantly increased by using modern biotechnologies of complete and deep processing, says Professor Boris Kershengoltz of the Institute of Biological Problems of Cryolithozone (the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch).
Those are products of reindeer husbandry, horse breeding, fishing, hunting, gathering and cultivation of the most valuable Arctic and sub-Arctic wild plants. The scientist believes that deep processing will add significantly to environment-friendly businesses in the Arctic.
"Thus will grow financial and consumer values of final products in traditional sectors, and additionally this will mean subsidy-fee opportunities to improve the level and quality of life for the North's indigenous peoples," the scientist said.
Arctic biological raw materials may be used in food, medical-preventive and biological substances. "This, of course, will increase economic efficiency of Arctic enterprises," the expert added.
Development of local production
According to Yakutia's First Deputy Minister for Arctic Development and Affairs of the Peoples of the North Sergey Neustroev, the local production development is connected directly with the so-called Northern Supplies (summer supplies of essentials and fuel to the North).
"By 2025, trade and logistics centers will appear in Yakutia's all 13 Arctic regions. In order to support and stimulate businesses, these centers will offer organized purchases, primary processing, and storage of goods from local producers - meat, fish products, wild plants," he said.
In the future, by using these trading functions, the region will support small and medium-sized businesses, self-employed people and will use a cluster effect to stimulate local production, he added.
Trading stations will also satisfy the domestic demand. According Yakutia's authorities, the local demand for meat products is about 50,000 tons, while the current production is about 15-20 thousand tons, which is only 30% of the demand. Priorities of the region's agriculture policies are traditional sectors, including reindeer husbandry, as well as deep processing of meat.