Abrau-Durso plans to build tourism center in Azerbaijan on territory of winery
ABRAU-DURSO. May 12 (Interfax) - The Abrau-Durso group of companies plans to create a tourist center at its winery in Azerbaijan, the group's main shareholder Boris Titov told reporters on the sidelines of the Wine Tourism Forum, which is being held in Abrau-Durso on Friday.
"We have a wine-making project in Azerbaijan; it is already bringing in real results today. We are already in first place in exports to Russia among all Azerbaijani wineries. In addition, there, in Azerbaijan, we plan to open a tourist center on the same principle as the one in Abrau-Durso," Titov said.
Azerbaijan ranked first in the Soviet Union in terms of the amount of wine produced, he said.
"276,000 hectares of vineyards is more than Georgia, Russia, Moldova, everything. Unfortunately, negative processes have strongly affected it. Today, the vineyards produce different volumes, but they have begun to develop actively," Titov added.
He did not mention the timing of the project or the planned amount of investment.
At present, a winemaking museum is operating on the grounds of the Azerbaijani winery, the press service of the State Corporation told reporters.
Abrau-Durso Group, represented by a subsidiary of AzAbrau LLC, in December 2021 became the winner of an investment competition for the purchase of the Sheki Sharab winery in the Sheki region of Azerbaijan. The state's share of 86.64% was put up for the investment competition.
AzAbrau exported 600,000 bottles of wine to Russia in 2022, and the plan for 2023 is to export 3.5 million bottles.
In Q2 2023, there are plans to launch a line for the production of sparkling wines at an enterprise in Azerbaijan, Pavel Titov, President of the Group, said at a press conference in December.
As reported, last year the tourist center in Novorossiysk was visited by a half-million tourists. In the next 3 years, it is planned to increase this number to one million people a year, and to launch a number of tourism projects.
The company belongs to the family of businessman Boris Titov.