The beer industry in Latvia is currently at its lowest point. The country has turned from a beer producer into an importer – about 60% of the beer drunk in Latvia was produced abroad, said Reinis Plavins, chairman of the Society of Independent Breweries and head of the Labietis brewery. Since 2016, Latvian residents have been drinking more imported beer than local beer, which is absolutely contrary to interests of small breweries and the state as a whole, the entrepreneur believes. “Of the 150-160 million liters we drank, we imported 100 million liters. What saddens us most is that 150 years ago Latvia exported beer as far as Kamchatka, across the entire former Russian Empire. Riga and Latvia in general were the center of beer production, with the largest , modern and export-oriented breweries. All that remains of this today is that we import beer with Latvian names from Lielvārde, Madona, Lāčplēsis, Aldaris, partially Bauska and Mežpils – none of them are produced. in Latvia,” said Plavins. The market of the Baltic countries is small, and manufacturers locate their large capacities where it is more profitable; the rest of the market is consumers. "Unfortunately, in the case of Latvia, two major global players – Carlsberg (Aldaris) and Royal Unibrew (Bauskas alus, Lielvārde, Lāčplēsis, Līvu, Madonas) – decided that it was more profitable for them to produce in neighboring countries and only sell in Latvia. Recently there were Data have been published on the countries that import the most beer – Latvia is in third place in the world,” Plavins noted. That is why at the beginning of the year, Latvian independent breweries united in order to at least slightly fight back against global players. “At the time of the creation of the company, it included 14 breweries, now two more have joined. In general, we have the potential to increase the number of participants to 10-15,” the entrepreneur noted. He also emphasized that the main goal of the society is to contribute to the development of the Latvian beer industry. "In the last 10-15 years, the beer industry has been in decline, both in terms of beer consumption and in terms of the share of local beer in total consumption. The beer industry is the oldest industry, it is mentioned in the chronicles of Indrikis, beer is glorified in thousands of folk tales songs and has become part of the Latvian identity, so it is very sad that the industry is in decline,” said Pļaviņš.
