Abrau-Durso to export products from Azerbaijan winery to China
SHEKI/BAKU. June 13 (Interfax) - Abrau-Durso Group , one of Russia's largest winemakers, plans to increase exports of products from its Sheki Sharab winery in Azerbaijan, including by shipping to Turkey and China, group owner Boris Titov told reporters.
"At the moment we export the most products [from this winery] to Russia, but we intend to export to other countries, including to Turkey after the opening of the border through Nakhchivan. We also have hopes for the Chinese market, we plan to ship the first container of Azerbaijani product to China. [...] We are investing our marketing and distribution efforts, looking for partners to increase volumes," Titov said.
The group's investment in the Sheki Sharab winery has reached 6.6 million euros, he said.
"I must say that the amount of investment that was stipulated in our agreement with Azerbaijan's Economy Ministry is not everything that we invested here. Initially the figure was 2 million-3 million euros, but in the end we exceeded this figure severalfold, [investing] 6.6 million euros. In addition to direct investments in the winery stipulated in our agreement, we also bought additional equipment for sparkling wines, which we did not initially plan to produce," Titov said.
The winery also has potential to increase production, he said. The group now has capacity to produce 3.5 million bottles per year in Azerbaijan, "but actually we can produce more," Titov said.
"We produced more than 1 million bottles from the middle of last year to the present. We are already the leading exporter of Azerbaijani wine to Russia. We hope that production volumes will only grow," Titov said.
The group is considering acquiring other wineries in Azerbaijan in future, he said. "We're looking. Of course, this depends on what we manage to sell, the volumes that we need to bring together - the grapes, winemaking and the market, all this must work together, everything must be connected in a unified system, so we're developing," Titov said.
"We believe that the production volumes that will be here can be increased in the coming years, including through other producers. We are already buying wine from other producers, we're working with other winemakers in Azerbaijan," Titov said.
He also said the winery is intent on developing wine tourism and with this in mind it has opened a wine museum for tastings and wine purchases directly on-site.
The company said that most of the land suitable for vineyards that Abrau-Durso has acquired in Azerbaijan are located in the Fuzuli district of the Karabakh Economic Region. The vineyards grow the native madras grape variety and the international rkatsiteli variety. Existing vineyards total 100 hectares and there are plans to plant another 300 hectares in future. The group also plans to plant the madras and Bayan Shirey grape varieties native to Azerbaijan on 30 hectares next to the winery in the Sheki district.
Abrau-Durso Group's subsidiary AzAbrau LLC won an investment tender to acquire the government's 86.64% stake in the Sheki Sharab LLC winery in December 2021.