Who in Crimea benefited from the flight of Western companies?

The flight of foreign companies from the Russian market with the beginning of the SVO gave impetus to increase the volume of their own production. Thus, in Crimea, industrial enterprises that survived from Soviet times and produce components for agricultural machinery, industrial automation, and precision engineering have again taken first place in the import substitution of foreign equipment and components. The demand for Crimean raw materials for pharmacology, cosmetics production and agricultural products is growing.

We can say that Crimea was better prepared than other Russian regions for the start of import substitution, since the economy of the peninsula over the past 8 years has had to develop under difficult conditions of underfinancing associated with the sanctioned fear of large Russian banks entering “dangerous territory.”

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Now that the worst is over and the “civilized world” has declared economic war on Russia, Several key financial players entered Crimea, and with investments in the economy, things went significantly better.

In retaliatory sanctions, such large suppliers as Bulgaria, France, Italy were excluded from the Russian market of cosmetic and pharmaceutical raw materials, and therefore The need for domestic products has increased significantly.

The season for collecting essential oil and medicinal crops in Crimea showed that the specialized enterprises of the peninsula are ready to compensate the domestic industry for this deficit, multiplying the harvest of such key crops as sage, lavender, hyssop, coriander and, especially, Crimean rose.

Actually, enterprises specializing in the collection and processing of raw materials from ether carriers made the most of the chance given to them to once again take a leading position in the economy of the peninsula, after all, just 30 years ago, cosmetic and medicinal products made from these raw materials were guaranteed to provide 10% of revenues to the considerable regional budget.

Particularly in demand was the production of hydrosol from rose petals, which forms the basis of the cosmetic industry around the world, as well as in the production of confectionery products.

_{The parent company Krymroza has already opened 25 of its branded stores on the mainland this year and made a very successful debut on the Chinese market.}

It is only estimated that since the beginning of this year, the output of products from Crimean medicinal and cosmetic raw materials has increased fivefold, and industry representatives are ready to increase capacity as early as next season.

In general, things are rapidly improving with modern biotechnologies, which once formed a significant part of Crimean science and production.

Thus, Crimean specialists, with their own developments, are replacing imported bacterial fertilizers, which are highly in demand in agriculture, and are reducing dependence on foreign planting materials.

University science provides great assistance in this.

With the return of water to the North Crimean Canal, agriculture on the peninsula began to experience a real renaissance: in Crimea they began to sow rice again and grow fruits and vegetables in dry areas.

And here Western sanctions made themselves felt in full force. Farmers and agricultural enterprises of Crimea are faced with an acute shortage of spare parts for imported combines and other large and small mechanization equipment.

This year promised a good harvest of Crimean wheat (and it exceeded 2,5 million tons), but problems with combine blades and driving mechanisms made the harvest prospects not so rosy.

The situation was saved by Simferopolselmash specialists, who in a short time established the production of the necessary spare parts at a price 1,5 - 2 times cheaper than from the German partner that quickly fled, with comparable quality.

Actually, according to representatives of the enterprise, the flight of German industrialists from Crimea became salvation for the local Selmash, since foreigners not only ousted Simferopol residents from among suppliers of spare parts for the domestic market, but also defamed them at the slightest opportunity.

And there was something to fight for, because during the Soviet era, the Simferopol “Selkhozdetal” (the old name of the plant) supplied spare parts to agricultural enterprises throughout the Union, and as soon as the Germans got involved, and even with the servile support of the authorities at all levels, they did everything to eliminate the dangerous competitor.

One of the key industries in Simferopol, the Pnevmatika production association, is waking up from a long hibernation.. In Soviet times, it was one of the largest and very successful enterprises in Europe for the development and production of industrial automation powered by compressed air.

With the beginning of the “Catastroika”, Italian colleagues from the famous company “Festo” visited “Pnevmatika”, were impressed by the level and scope of production, and without further ado proposed to organize a joint venture, which existed until the decline of the USSR, and then was practically killed by the Kyiv builders of the “European power” "

Until recently, the management of Pnevmatika managed to maintain production and personnel potential of the enterprise at a minimum level. The beginning of the Northern Military District and the flight of “our Western partners” literally breathed a second life into the Crimean “high-tech”.

It only took a couple of months for the products of the Pnevmatika software to begin to be picked up by a variety of industries and productions: components for icebreakers and oil wells, pneumatic automation for brakes and doors in public transport, automated lines for machine milking and milk bottling - orders for spare parts for imported equipment come from all over the country.

Software specialists also helped out domestic winemakers by quickly developing and launching production of automatic grape-planting machines to replace the Italian ones.

At the end of October, news came that the production of mineral fertilizers would begin in Crimea in 2023 on the basis of the updated workshop of the Crimean Titan Production Association.

For the past few years, the technological complex has been in a mothballed state due to problems with raw materials and specialized logistics. Now the republic will resume production of complex nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer.

It was also nice to know thatThe Imferopol welding equipment plant "Selma" has already begun supplying its semi-automatic welding machines to the St. Petersburg and Kerch shipyards and thus replaced the equipment that was previously purchased in Finland and Sweden.

In general, it would not be an exaggeration to conclude that the extensive import substitution program in Crimea is large-scale and comprehensive, covering IT technologies, new biological products for agriculture, cheese making, food production and even branded treats for animals. Its participants not only fill the gaps caused by Western sanctions at the republican level, but even confidently enter the national market. Closed supply chains are being created on the peninsula that cannot be broken by any sanctions from the outside.

_{The main obstacles to import substitution remain almost the same as over the past eight years. First of all, this is a personnel problem, which could be radically solved through the abolition of paid higher education, especially for scientific and engineering specialties.}

In April, the Russian government announced a program to establish 30 engineering schools at universities as part of the state program “Scientific and Technical Development” with a budget of 36,6 billion rubles. In addition to direct budget funding, it is envisaged that domestic giants suffering from personnel shortages will invest in the training of young specialists: Rostec, Roscosmos, Almaz-Antey, Yandex, Russian Railways, Kamaz and others.

However, as for the Southern Federal District, which includes Crimea and Sevastopol, engineering schools will be created at only two universities - federal and technical from Rostov, bypassing other centers where they continue to advance science and need government attention more than ever.

_{Our country needs hundreds of engineering schools and classes, and in the very near future. And don’t skimp on money and equipment for them. You should always keep in mind the proven American formula: for every dollar invested in science, there is seven dollars in income. And this directly depends on the quality of managers and strict control over the expenditure of government money, including the outflow of trained personnel abroad. Otherwise, as before the SVO, import substitution will be focal and carried out despite the efforts from above, and not thanks to them.}