Amour Club News

Recently in mass-media appeared a number of scandal publications about the loss of unique porcelain collection. As experts of art say, its price might reach $200 thousand if one day it would be sold on Sotheby. The loss of service was revealed by workers of Ukrainian state property fund while they were checking archives of rent enterprise named ???Deffo???. A year before a contract was signed, according to which the collection should be moved to the Museum of Ukrainian decorative art. In fact, it was handed to one of the members of supervisory board ??“ some gentleman Kafte, who was even paid extra $12 thousand for its storage. The location of gentleman today, as well as collection today remains a mystery.
Ukrainian producers were always famed for their porcelains. They started to produce porcelains since 17 century. Numerous manufactories are located not far from the raw sources ??“ kaolin deposits. For this reason, the majority of enterprises are situated in Gitomirskiy region. During Soviet times Ukraine supplied all Union republics with the porcelain and delft ware. After 90??™s the branch felt into decay. The financial situation of practically all factories was continually worsening. The privatization of those years wasn??™t favorable for investments. Enterprises didn??™t change methods of work, loosing their competitiveness on the market. Many of them had finally bankrupted. The share of porcelain production is now reduced from 30% to 11%. To the present time only 11 survived of the previous 36. Three of them produce electro technical porcelain, and their production is highly demanded by the market. Others do not have much to boast with, almost all are unprofitable. They didn??™t bear the competition with Chinese masters. Most domestic enterprises stopped their activity after just another price rise of energy. The energy price makes 70% of cost price. The situation can be well understood after number of visits to the main shops. It is really difficult to find Ukrainian porcelain there. Few tea services vanish away among the diversity of Czech and Chinese products. Polish and Japanese services are also well presented. The cheap segment (40-50$ for one service) is occupied by Chinese mass consumption goods, the middle one (100-800$) by Czech and Polish production, the expensive niche (1000$ and more) is occupied by products of Italian, Japanese and German firms. Unfortunately, Ukrainian cups and plates can??™t compare with foreign quality and design. But only few decades ago they were distinguished by its originality and could be easily bought in any central shops. Ukrainian skilled craftsmen used hand paintings, precious metals and high-quality raw materials. After 90??™s, producers were forced to sacrifice all this benefits to the favor of cheapness. Today home producers complain about the lack of demand.
Why opportunities and high potential of the branch are not used??  For sure, Ukraine can perfectly be one of the word leaders in ceramics and become famous for its unique production. Even more so, considering that our kaolin and quartz sands are best in the world. Moreover, their deposits are enough for hundreds of years ahead. What is important, Ukraine also posses such demanded raw materials, as fire-clay, pigment, gypsum. They are traditionally produced here. Truly, porcelain sphere is potentially very strong. On the other hand, all experts agree that the branch experiences a serious lack of investments. Mainly, enterprises need solid money for the rapid modernization (the same equipment serve the branch since Soviet epoch). ? So, all hopes of producers are connected with the large-scale business modernization. Definitely, our ???fragile branch??? needs the state support. For example, the similar problem few years before experienced Russia. And what they??™ve done was easing tax burden and opening the market for foreign investments. During 90??™s people could not imagine nowadays problems, all were hunting for bounds to buy. Today is a new time for the porcelain branch - the time of effective management and therefore foreign capital is highly demanded.