Russia's Baltika planning to export beer to South Africa

MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) - The Baltika brewing company, one of Russia's leading beer producers, plans to export its products to South Africa and is looking at the country as a potential hub for shipping to other countries on the continent.

"Our products are supplied to more than 40 countries around the world, including a number of countries on the African continent, but not yet to South Africa. We intend to open the South African market for Baltika beer, select a reliable distributor and jointly establish active sales of high-quality beer from Russia, as well as engage in the joint promotion of our beer," Oleg Lazarenko, Baltika's export manager for European and non-CIS countries, said during a roundtable as part of a Russian agricultural products exporters' business mission to South Africa, which was organized by the Agroexport center and the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.

The company plans to operate both in the South African market and in other African countries, using South Africa as a logistics hub, he said.

Lazarenko noted that Baltika is Russia's largest exporter of beer with a share of over 46% in Russian beer sales abroad and a volume of up to 1 billion liters per year.

Baltika is the second largest brewing company in Russia, operating 8 factories. Last year, Baltika produced 197.42 million deciliters of products, which is 4.7% less than in 2021. The company's revenue in 2022 increased to 100.7 billion rubles from 82.6 billion rubles in 2021, while net profit increased 90% to 9.952 billion rubles.

As reported, as per a presidential decree, 100% of Baltika (98.56% belonged to Swedish legal entity Carlsberg, 0.09% to German legal entity Carlsberg and 1.35% to Hoppy Union LLC) were transferred to the management of the Federal Property Management Agency. Carlsberg announced an "illegal takeover of its business in Russia" and plans to protect its assets, the write-off of which the company estimates at almost $1 billion.