The first Arctic trade and logistics center, which opened in Yakutia’s township of Belaya Gora, will deliver food to about 12 communities. Food costs will drop 2.5 times on previous levels.

“A trade and logistics center of the Yakutian Wholesale Trade Company (Yakutopttorg) has started operating in the township of Belaya Gora. Residents of the Abyy District will be able to buy affordable groceries here; vegetables, fruits and other foods cost the same as in Yakutsk. The center will deliver food to 12 communities in three Arctic districts. Its potatoes cost 74 rubles a kilo, onions cost 75 rubles a kilo, and watermelons and melons from Uzbekistan cost 140 rubles per kilo. Earlier, these vegetables and fruits cost 2.5 times more,” the press service of the administration of the republic’s head and government said.

In his 2020 address to the State Assembly, Head of Yakutia Aisen Nikolayev instructed the concerned officials to open these centers in all of the republic’s Arctic districts.

On Wednesday, he visited the Abyy District on a working trip and congratulated its residents on this positive event. “Most important, the trade and logistics center has a wide selection of products and also charges affordable prices for Northerners,” the head of the republic noted.

The trade and logistics center’s building has a heated warehouse for storing 80 metric tons of produce, a warehouse for 190 metric tons of potatoes, refrigerators with a capacity of 30 metric tons, as well as a large store.

A similar facility is to open next week in the township of Ust-Kuiga in the Ust-Yansky District. And another center is to open next year in Batagai in the Verkhoyansky District. “There are plans to purchase a specialized vessel and to launch regular deliveries on the Ust-Kuiga-Batagai route. This will make it possible to create a closed-loop food supply cycle for the Yana River group of districts,” Yakutopttorg General Director Nikolai Alekseyev explained.

In 2022, we are planning to open a trade and logistics center in the city of Srednekolymsk for supplying the Kolyma River group of districts, he noted. “To supply our trade centers, we are beginning to send socially important goods via the Northern Sea Route. Our ship will enter the Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers. We are therefore moving to implement the ambitious task set by the head of Yakutia and its government,” he added.