YAKUTSK, February 4. /TASS/. The amount of food products supplied to Yakutia's Arctic districts will be increased by 15% in the current year, the Arctic Trade and Logistics Company's Director General Saidam Stepanov told TASS.
"In 2024, we fulfilled the annual plan by 100%. This year, we want to increase the supplies of an expanded range of food products, that is, perishable articles - vegetables, fruits, eggs, dairy products. We will increase the amounts by about 15% this year, and the amounts will grow annually," he said. Thus, the company plans to supply 1,620 tons this year.
In the winter of 2024, the company delivered 5,371 tons of food supplies by cars, where more than half of the cargo was flour. During the navigation, the company shipped 2,749 tons of food, including 1,455 tons of flour (115.94% of the plan) and 572 tons of vegetables (118.18% of the plan), and 441.9 tons of food were delivered by 146 flights.
The plan for the current year is to deliver 5,230 tons of food products by winter roads, 2,480 tons by the water transport, 450 tons by air. The cargo plan for 2025 is 8,160 tons, the company said.
New approaches to food deliveries to the Russian Arctic
New methods of food deliveries to remote settlements were used last year, the company continued.
One of the biggest fears was the food could get frozen while shipped. Thus, at the Magan airport, on the shipment day, goods are brought to the aircraft in insulated vehicles, and thermal blankets are used on board. In 2024, when the company could not ship cargo during the navigation, they tested using all-terrain vehicles to bring products to the village of Olenek. The transportation of 4.4 tons of vegetables, fruits, and processed meat was successful, and the delivery cost was lower than by regular means.
The company has also used snowmobiles for deliveries to hard-to-reach settlements. For example, last winter snowmobiles delivered 5.8 tons of food in insulated containers and thermal blankets to the villages of Khayyr, Tumat and Yukagir in the Ust-Yansky District.