From the beginning of 2006 the new liquor legislation has been introduced, stipulating that the new excise stamps with unique bar-codes must be used for all bottled alcohol products sold within the country. The products with the old stamps were only allowed for import into Russia till 1 April 2006 and have to be sold in retail before 1 July 2006.
There was no new wine coming into the country since 1 April 2006, because even though the new excise stamps became available at the end of April(!), the computer systems that are supposed to read the unique bar-codes are still being tested. They are expected to become fully operational by the end of this month.
As if importers were not nervous enough sitting on the huge volumes of wines with old excise stamps, on 27 March 2006 the Russian Sanitary Authorities have introduced the ban on all alcohol products from Moldova and Georgia. These two former Soviet Republics were jointly responsible for over a third of the total wine market in Russia. The official explanation for the ban was the low quality of wines from these countries, big propotion of counterfeit production and some pesticides, heavy metals and other substances unfit for human consumption found in these wines. It is reported that over $200 million worth of wine will now have to be re-exported or destroyed.
Some big supermarket chains stopped accepting wine with the old stamps from the beginning of March already. With the new move of the Russian authorities some big retailers, such as Metro Cash'n Carry, have decided to remove wines with retail prices below $3.50 off the shelves altogether. The wine prices have already increased by almost 10% over the past month and are expected to grow by another 20% by July this year.
The Russian wine market is used and highly resilient to the shake-ups like this. The wine import has been growing at 30-35% per year on avarage since 2000. Import from France have increased by almost 45% last year, import from Argentina – by 80%! South Africa and the US have been almost doubling their volumes each year since 2004, exceeding 1.1 million litres each last year.
The strongest will survive again in the current situation and in the next few month some old and new Russian importers will be desperately looking for new products to fill in the emptying supermarket shelves and to satisfy their thirsty consumers.
INTERDRINK 2006
INTERDRINK 2006 – the 14th annual international exhibition of alcohol and soft drinks – will take place at Expocentre in Moscow on 7-9 November 2006. It is expected to become an extraordinary event on the Russian and international alcohol market since for the first time in this country the exhibition is jointly organised by the Russian industry leaders and the international exhibition professionals. The Russian Wine Importers Association (NO “SUAR”), whose members are importing more than 80% of all alcohol into the country, is ensuring the support and participation of the Russian importers and distributors community, while “Interexpo SA” is providing its vast expertise in organisation of iternational fairs and shows.
“Interdrink 2006” will mainly be a trade event focussed on the industry challenges and perspectives. The exhibition will be hold at the “Krasnaya Presnya” Expocentre, situated in close proximity of the Kremlin and the Red Square. The international conference “Measures against falsification and counterfeit of wine and spirits” will take place concurrently with the exhibition. Within the framework of the Interdrink 2006 the various round tables, master-classes, presentations and the following competitions will be conducted:
- the 2nd New International Contest of Wine and Spirits;
- the 3rd All-Russia Competition “Creative Sommelier”;
- the 1st Competition of Labels.
Interdrink presents an excellent opportunity to wine and spirit producers wishing to enter the Russian market and establish extensive business links and contacts with potential customers in this country. Besides the numerous Russian importers that will be exhibiting their existing lines of products and looking for the new ones at the exhibition, it is expected that more than 15 000 professionals engaged in production, trade and promotion of alcohol and soft drinks will visit the “Interdrink 2006”.
For any enquiries relating to these events please contact either the organisers:
“Interexpo” (Moscow), phone: +7-495-252 33 66, e-mail: interdrink@mail.ru;
or their representative in South Africa:
Vladimir Gorodkov, phone: +27-82-820 46 89, e-mail: gorodkov@telkomsa.net.