Svema (Ukrainian: Свема) is a registered trade mark and former name ("NPO "Svema") of the Shostka Chemical Plant, located in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine. It was founded in 1931 in then Ukrainian SSR.
"Svema" used to be the major photographic film manufacturer in the USSR, but their film lost market share in former Soviet countries to imported products during the late 1990s. They made black-and-white photographic film, photographic paper and B&W/colour cine film until 2000.[1] Colour fim was made with equipment dismantled from the Agfa-Wolfen Factory after World War II. Svema products were known among enthusiasts as an easy and sturdy product for beginners in home film development and printing.
Their black-and-white photographic films were:
Type 1981
(old GOST speed scale)
around late 1980s:
Type 1990
(new GOST speed scale, same as ASA)
The plant's production of photographic products slowed through the 1990s and ceased entirely in 2000. Svema shut down completely in 2006, having served only as a district heating source for the town of Shostka in the intervening years. [2]