The new plant will produce a new high barrier films plant for food wrapping.

Inauguration of the new Atlantis-Pak facility on 29 July was attended by Rostov region governor Vasily Golubev and the provincial government’s industry and energy minister Mikhail Tikhonov and management of «Agrocom Group».

For Russia, which is currently pursuing a priority government-backed strategy of substituting imported goods with domestic production, and the Don region, the new plant is a significant step forward. Film for packaging perishable goods is now widely used in the country, but most barrier film is still imported from abroad.

The new plant is set to supply a number of processed food processing customers in Russia, including the major Rostov region turkey producer Eurodon, and others in the country’s neighbouring CIS nations.

Consumption of barrier packaging film is growing steadily in Russia and Agrocom predicts Atlantis-Pak will secure a 19% market share of this type of film by 2020. Atlantis-Pak is due to invest a total of €45.9m overall in the new Russian plant which is expected to create around 250 new jobs in the district. In the first phase company has launched a 1,000 tpa barrier films line. Over the next two to three years, the firm intends to scale up production to the plant’s total 16,000 tpa.