Russia, St. Petersburg: The largest Russian beer-maker based in St. Petersburg, Baltika brewery, started beer shipments to Norway on Friday, March 11, Itar-Tass cited Baltika’s Director for exports Dmitry Kistev. He said exports to Norway will begin with a batch of 10,000 liters.

“It was difficult to access the Norwegian market because of tough registration requirements and high taxes,” Kistev said. Baltika beer will be sold only through the state-run Vinmonopolet retail network. The state monopoly conditioned the sale of Russian beer will begin in May. The Baltika beer will be cheaper than other imported beer.

In 2004 sales of Baltika Brewery reach the record volume for the Russian beer industry as the company sold some 2 billion liters of beer. In 2004 sales of leading Baltika beers grew twice as fast as the market, with Baltika No. 3 Classic and Baltika No. 7 Export selling some 21% more year on year. In 2004 Baltika increased the number of export markets on which the company operates, involving markets of China, Australia, Tajikistan, New Zealand, Belgium, Poland, Cyprus, Cuba and Taiwan. At present the company exports beer to 36 countries. According to the preliminary data of 2004, the sales volume of the company in 2004 grew by 14% year on year, and amounted to 11.3 million deciliters. In 2005 the company plans to increase export to 15.5 mln deciliters. According to RTS, Baltika now is one of top 15 most expensive Russian companies.

Each Russian drinks on average 55 litres of beer per year. The target is to reach a per capita beer consumption of 70 litres per year by 2010.

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