The Ministry of Finance has asked beer producers to assess the feasibility of increasing duties on beer from unfriendly countries from the current €0.1 to €1 per liter by the end of 2024 and to €1.5 per liter in 2025, Kommersant writes.
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The Finance Ministry's letter states that such a proposal was made by the United Breweries (OPKh) holding, created in 2023 by the Arnest group on the basis of the Russian division of Heineken (which produces beer under the brands Krusovice, Bochkarev, Mister Lis, and Okhota). According to the OPKh's position, "active imports of goods have a negative impact on the industry, which could lead to a decrease in domestic production volumes and tax deductions."
It is known that not all market participants support this idea: the increase in duties will affect the growth of prices for mass-produced foreign varieties. For example, Germany and the Czech Republic, from where such products are mainly imported, may, as a countermeasure, limit the shipment of hops to Russia, on which Russian brewers are heavily dependent.
Beer imports to Russia in 2023 amounted to 370.5 million liters, which is 12.6% more than in 2022, but remained below the figures for 2020-2021, when 397 million and 457 million liters were imported, respectively. Last year, more than 51.7% of beer imports came from Germany, the import volume increased by 14% and amounted to 197.1 million liters. Imports from the Czech Republic increased by 49% (49 million liters), from Belgium – by 36.4% (37.8 million liters), supplies from Mexico increased by 72.6% (22.1 million liters), and from China – by 84.4% (21.4 million liters).
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