Seryosha is familiar with the Gorky Automobile Plant, and now most of the officials of the government departments are riding in Volga luxury cars, which can be said to be the fist products of the Gorky Automobile Factory.
Originally, the Gorky Automobile Factory also had a more high-end Seagull car, which was specially produced for state leaders in the past, and was also presented as a state gift to foreign heads of state.
However, it is a pity that this car was replaced by the Likhachev Automobile Plant in Moscow, the Stalin Automobile Plant in Moscow, the name changed by Khrushchev, and the Gil brand cars produced by President Jiang once worked here.
The Gil 4104 stretch sedan in which Seryosha now rides is a product of the Likhachev Automobile Plant, while the Gil car in which the state leader is riding is a specially customized, bulletproof version.
As for the other product mentioned by the Glencore experts, the Lada is a bestseller produced by the Avtoga manufacturing plant, another car factory on the banks of the Volga River.
Lada and AvtoVAZ also face completely different consumer groups, Lada is a family car for ordinary people, while AvtoVAZ is an official car.
Seryosha decided to visit the Volga plant and see the production line of the Lada before taking up his post.
The Volga Automobile Factory is located in the city of Togliatti, a city in the middle reaches of the Volga River.
The factory was built in the 60s in cooperation with the Italian Fiat Group.
At that time, it was the vast number of Communist Youth League members who built a modern automobile city on a barren land in five years.
Nastya spent two days arranging everything for Seryosha's expedition.
Subsequently, Seryosha took his subordinates of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and flew to the city of Togliatti on a chartered plane.
Seryosha's entourage included not only staff from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, but also experts from the Ministry of Automobile Industry and heads of some foreign trade companies engaged in automobile trade.
Because in Seryosha's opinion, there are not many countries and regions in the world that can be used as consumers of cars in the USSR.
The Americans were sanctioning the USSR, and the auto industry in Western Europe was even better than in the USSR.
Only Latin America, Africa, and Asia are the markets for Seryosha, so for Seryosha, the cheap Lada is more important than the high-end Volga.
Naturally, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation attached great importance to the visit of the Volga Automobile Factory.
The party secretary of the automobile plant personally went to the airport to greet Seryosha and escorted them back to the hotel.
The party secretary did not dare to disturb Seryosha and their rest too much, and after confirming the inspection arrangements with Nastya, the party secretary took his leave first, and did not arrange for the factory vehicles to come to the hotel to pick up Seryosha to inspect the factory until the next morning.
Seryosha, led by the secretary of the party committee, the manager and the head of the sales company, visited the production line in Radaniva.
As a mature model that has been born for nearly a decade, Lada Niva has many obvious advantages, first of all, it has excellent off-road performance, although it is a small car, it has the off-road performance of the British Land Rover and the German Mercedes-Benz.
Moreover, the car is durable and has excellent driving performance, and it needs to be overhauled after covering the equivalent distance of ten times the distance from Moscow to Vladivostok.
As for the price of the car, most Russian families can actually afford it, and in some remote villages, Radaniva is even used as a tractor.
After visiting the production line, Seryosha witnessed the outstanding performance of Ladaniva at the off-road obstacle course of the Volga Automobile Factory.
So Seryosha was very curious and asked the person in charge of the sales company: "Since your product is so good, how is the sales situation abroad?"
The person in charge hurriedly replied: "Our market share in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe has always been very high, and the sales situation is very good" Seryosha smiled, shook his head, and then asked: "What about the countries other than the socialist camp in Eastern Europe?"
"A few years ago, we were in the top 10 in Austria and Spain, but then we had to abandon the market in these two countries due to sanctions and increased market competition.
But now in some Asian countries, as well as in Mongolia, our products are still the best-selling models on the market," replied the sales manager.
Seryosha nodded, and no longer expressed opinions and questions to the person in charge.
He called out to the party secretary and manager of the Volga Automobile Factory, and asked in a low voice: "Tell me honestly, is there a big gap between our car and similar foreign products?"
"Our main selling point is the high quality and low price, although not as fancy as foreign cars, but we are equipped with an air conditioning system that is rare in its class, and if it were not for the sanctions, I believe that our products could earn more foreign exchange earnings for the country," said the party secretary of the car factory.
"Actually, I'm most concerned about whether we can open up some new markets for the Rada, such as Latin American countries," Seryosha asked.
"Cuba is one of our traditional big customers," replied the manager of the car plant.
"How's their feedback?"
Seryosha asked with concern.
"They like our air-conditioning system the most, because we have the lowest price of all the cars with air conditioning," the manager replied.
Hearing this, Seryosha was already very satisfied, and in Seryosha's heart, although the Rada had many benefits, it was not suitable for earning foreign exchange.
However, if you export to countries with developed agricultural and animal husbandry industries such as Brazil and Argentina, it is very suitable to import livestock products in the form of barter, coffee, soybeans, and even tobacco.
After all, none of these countries are rich countries, and the foreign exchange in hand is not rich, and the other party should not refuse if a barter transaction is proposed.
With this in mind, Seryosha had already decided on his first trade partner, which was Colombia, the home of the Medellín and Cali groups.
This made Colombia one of the overseas dumping countries of Soviet automobiles, and then began to spread to neighboring countries.
People in these countries all speak the same Spanish, and it shouldn't be expensive to generalize.
And, more importantly, through the auto trade, it is easier and safer to help his Latin American clients move their assets to a loosely regulated Europe, in which case Seryosha has more money at his disposal.
As for the use of these funds, Seryosha thought that perhaps it would be a good option to hollow out Japan in the near future. t1706231537: