food industry. The city's development is driven by engineering industries, that have received new impulse with the establishment of more than 100 new small and medium engineering business enterprises, united in the cluster "AgroBOOM". Machine engineering complex of the city is represented by 8 large plants and more than 100 small and medium-sized enterprises formed after 1991. Mechanical engineers of the city mainly produce goods for the agricultural sector. Enterprises include: The plant BIOL makes dishes, The PLANT OF INNOVATION TECHNOLOGIES is manufactures high-tech electronic equipment, software, high-frequency generators, equipment for ground handling of airliners (Airbus, Bombardier, Boeng, AN, Il, Tu), frequency converters for railway, urban transport, subway. The plant TALCO collaborates with General Motors and Festo. The plant AUTOPRIVOD is produces YaMZ engines. The only plant in Ukraine that produces engines for cars is AvtoZAZ-MOTOR. The plant AVTOTSVETLIT is the only plant in Ukraine that produces five types of complex castings (steel, cast iron, magnesium, and aluminium); it also produces shock absorbers for VAZ. The company ROSTA performs the commercialisation of research in agricultural machinery and irrigation systems. The plant MzTK is a unique enterprise that produces turbines for mobile equipment. The plant TERMOLIT induction furnaces for foundry operations and other products of metal processing. The following companies can be called the basis of light industry in the city: Melitopol Sewing Production Enterprise exports its goods. The factory has "dressed" the Air France and Polaris French railway employees, Dutch police and firefighters, and Italian tax police. Melitopol Knitting Factory Nadezhda is a manufacturer of knitwear products. Furniture production is well developed; more than 20 small and medium enterprises are working in this field, distributing its products throughout Ukraine. Thanks to the proximity of the agricultural areas and raw materials of the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the food industry is well represented in the city. The main enterprises of the food industry are: Melitopol Meat Processing Plant produces sausages. Melitopol Milk Plant and Oil Extraction Plant are enterprises that belong to a major food-holding, Olkom. Melitopol grain elevator. People from Melitopol Grigory Chukhray, Soviet film director and screenwriter Dmytro Dontsov, who influenced the establishment of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a right-wing group that strove for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union during the 1930s Yevhen Khacheridi, professional footballer (born 1987) Mikhail Lifshitz, Soviet philosopher of art and literary critic Pavel Sudoplatov, Soviet intelligence officer References Notes External