Food-Processing Industry

Food-Processing Industry 

the industry manufacturing food products, condiments, tobacco, soap and detergents, and perfume and cosmetics.

In prerevolutionary Russia there were more than 300,000 enterprises of the food-processing industry. Most were small establishments and used mainly manual labor. Large factory-like establishments existed for the wine, sugar, confectionery, tobacco, and other branches of the food-processing industry. There were no facilities at all for the manufacture of vitamins, margarine, and food concentrates, and the tea and preserves industries were barely developed. The establishments of the industry were unevenly distributed. Almost all sugar and alcohol production was located in the Ukraine and the central chernozem region. More than 75 percent of all confectionery goods were produced in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kharkov provinces, and 40 percent of the preserves industry was situated in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Under the five-year plans prior to World War II (1929-early 1941), many enterprises of the food-processing industry were renovated and equipped with high-production machinery. New plants also were built. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, the fascist Germans seriously damaged the food-processing plant in occupied regions. Production in 1945 was 1.9 times lower than that of 1940, and the production of meat and granulated sugar fell below the 1913 level. After the war, the damaged factories were rebuilt and reequipped, and new plants were constructed.

By 1973 the food-processing industry included more than 11,000 enterprises, with a general work force of 3 million. These included new plants, sovkhoz factories, distributors, research institutions, and administrative offices. Hundreds of production and industrial agriculture organizations were established. On July 1, 1973, the food-processing industry included 2,407 factories and 12,634 mechanized and automated shops. Assembly lines are widely used in the production of butter. Automatic screw presses are used for obtaining vegetable oils from seeds, continuous extraction devices are used for making vegetable oils, and automated lines are set up for bottle washing and for bottling milk, beer, and liqueurs.

Work productivity more than tripled in the period from 1941 to 1973, and gross production almost quintupled. In 1973, the food-processing industry was responsible for 20 percent of the complete industrial output of the USSR. The industry’s access to raw materials is becoming easier; furthermore, the geographic distribution of the various plants and factories has been improved.

Table 1. Food-processing industry in the USSR
	1913	1940	1950	1970	1973
1Total meat production, including products from individual households, was 13,500 thousand tons 2 Total butter production, including products from individual households, was 1,350 thousand tons 3 Not including products of public catering facilities 4 Total production within the borders of the USSR up to Sept. 17, 1939 5 Russian-style cigarettes
Granulated sugar (thousand tons) ...........	1,363	2,165	2,523	10,221	10,714
including sugar from sugar beets (thousand tons) .	1,363	2,165	2,523	8,139	8,449
Fish, seals, whales, and other marine products (thousand tons).....................	1,051	1,404	1,755	7,828	9,005
Meat, including first-category by-products (thousand tons).....................	1,273	1,501	1,556	7,144	8.3421
Butter (thousand tons) ..................	129	226	336	963	1,2392
Whole-milk products (million tons) ...........	–	1.3	1.1	19.7	21.2
Vegetable oil (thouand tons) ..............	538	798	819	2,784	2,677
Margarine (thousand tons)................	–	121	192	762	883
Preserves (million jars)..................	116	1,113	1,535	10,678	13,038
Confectioneries (thousand tons)3............	125	790	993	2,896	3,144
Macaroni products (thousand tons)...........	304	324	440	1,184	1,342
Natural tea (thousand tons)...............	—	24.5	27.0	96.9	126
Ethyl alcohol, including from nonfood raw materials (million decaliters) ...................	55.2	89.9	73.0	279.6	293.5
Grape wine (million decaliters) .............	–	19.7	23.8	268	207
Beer (million decaliters) .................	80.64	121	131	419	508
Table salt, mined (million tons) .............	2.1	4.4	4.5	12.4	12.9
Papirosy5 and cigarettes (billion pieces)........	24.5	100.4	125.1	322.7	362.5
Flour (million tons) ....................	284	29	22	42	43
Perfume and cosmetics, retail (million rubles) ....	20	108.8	154.1	837.9	1,056

Table 2. Food-processing industry in socialist countries in 1973
	Granulated sugar1 (million tons)	Meat (million tons)		Milk (million tons)	Butter2 (thousand tons)
		Total	Industrial production
1From domestic raw material 2Industrial production 31972
Bulgaria........	0.4	0.5	0.3	1.7	15
Cuba .........	5.3	0.3	–	0.5	13
Czechoslovakia . . .	0.8	1.2	0.9	5.6	114
German Democratic Republic ......	0.6	1.5	1.2	7.7	250
Hungary........	0.3	1.2	0.5	1.8	22
Poland.........	1.6	2.7	2.0	16.3	182
Rumania .......	0.6	1.2	0.7	4.5	34
Yugoslavia ......	0.4.	1.13	–	3.3	–

The increase in output of the most important food products in the USSR is shown in Table 1. The 1973 production of various food products in socialist countries is shown in Table 2.

The developed capitalist countries have large food-processing industries. The 1973 production of various food products in developed capitalist countries is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Food-processing industry in developed capitalist countries in 1973
	Granulatedsugar1 (million tons)	Meat(million tons)	Milk (million tons)	Butter2 (thousand tons)
1From domestic raw material 2Industrial production 31972 41971 5Total production
Federal Republic of Germany	2.2	4.33	21.33	510
France ............	2.9	4.73	30.33	536
Great Britain.........	1.1	3.03	14.23	96
Italy..............	1.1	2.34	9.73	735
Japan .............	0.6	–	4.93	483
Netherlands .........	0.7	1.63	8.93	170
United States ........	5.0	22.9	52.4	418

All the major branches of the food-processing industry in capitalist countries are controlled by a small number of monopolies.

V. M. SHVARTS and M. I. NIKOL’SKII