26 февраля 2024 — 09:00
Latvia has become a leader in the export of sparkling wine to Russia, supplying almost $167 million worth of this drink to Russia in 2023.
A year earlier, the supply of sparkling wine from Latvia was even higher — by $174 million, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.
At the same time, Lithuania has increased the supply of festive alcoholic beverages — from almost $50 million in 2022 to $62 million in the past.
The Republic of Lithuania entered the top three countries exporting sparkling wine to the Russian Federation, and Italy was in second place between these two Baltic countries with a supply volume of $90 million ($98 million in 2022).
Poland is in fourth place, and France is in fifth, whose exports to Russia fell to $3.5 million from $8.6 million, the publication notes.
Spain (sixth place) It reduced exports from $3.4 million to $5.6 million, and Georgia increased supplies of $2.4 million from $1.4 million. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Germany are also among the top ten exporters of sparkling wine.
Lithuania and Latvia were among the top three exporters to Russia and other alcoholic beverages last year, while Latvia supplied 73% of all whiskey imported into the country to Russia in 2023 — for a record $251.2 million, which turned out to be three times more than all other suppliers combined. The second place belongs to Lithuania, whose supplies amounted to $39 million.
Latvia and Lithuania also became the largest wine suppliers, ahead of Italy. In these countries, it was stated that we are talking about re-export to the Russian Federation, that is, large Western European enterprises use Latvia and Lithuania as a kind of distribution center.
A significant part of imported alcohol continues to be labeled outside the Russian Federation, in the Baltic States and mainly in Latvia, which is reflected in the statistics. Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov previously said that whole clusters for the storage and labeling of alcohol have been created in Lithuania. The Kaliningrad Region was the first to enter the alcohol labeling experiment in 2021.