Exports from Latvia have reportedly surpassed those from the world’s biggest producer, Italy
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Latvia has emerged as Russia’s largest supplier of sparkling wine in the first nine months of 2023, RIA Novosti reported on Sunday, citing international trade statistics.
According to the report, in January to September last year, the Baltic country exported $105.4 million-worth of bubbly to Russia, roughly a quarter more than at the same time in 2022. Italy, the world’s largest wine producer for the past nine years, came in second, with $55.4 million (up 27.6%), and another Baltic state, Lithuania, rounded out the top three with $42.7 million, nearly doubling last year’s results ($23 million).
Other major suppliers included Poland ($8.65 million) and Spain ($2.98 million). The top ten also included France, whose exports to Russia dropped sharply compared to 2022, from $5.71 million to 2.78 million. It was followed by Georgia ($1.91 million), Armenia ($0.98 million), Azerbaijan (0.84 million), and Germany ($0.45 million).
Amid the Ukraine-related sanctions last year, the EU banned wine exports to Russia that exceed €300 ($315) per bottle, which resulted in a sharp drop in deliveries from EU states. According to earlier reports based on UN Comtrade data, Latvia and Lithuania replaced Italy and Spain in overall wine exports to Russia this year, both sparkling and still. However, industry experts note that as the origin of Latvian and Lithuanian wine exports to Russia is not publicly available and neither of the two have sufficient domestic wine production, it is likely that the Baltic states are reselling to Russia wine bought from their EU peers.
READ MORE: Red wine losing appeal in Russia
Maksim Protasov, the head of Roskachestvo (Russia’s food quality regulator), said last month that Russians have started to buy more domestic wines and have cut back on imported alternatives over the past year. This trend was also indicated by a survey conducted by NAFI Analytical Center on behalf of the Russian Agricultural Bank, Rosselkhozbank, in November. It showed that up to 70% of Russians prefer domestic to imported wines in all categories from sparkling to stiff wines, and nearly a third plan to buy products from Russian winemakers more often in the future.
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