E-Malt.com News article: 3306

Russia: On September 17 2004 Russian government approved new tariffs for import duty on malt at the rate of 10% from the customs value and not less than EUR 22 per tonne. According to Russian Beer Union this was a positive reply to their request. The brewers’ proposal was based on the fact that some Russian malt importers are lowering the customs costs of malt artificially, that is a violation of fair competition. Now Russian beer industry is one of the most import dependent economic branches of the country. In spite of the fact that lately brewing companies has been developing actively their own raw materials sources, Russian breweries are to import about 50% of malt. Every year Russian beer makers use about 1.2 million tonnes of malt.

Russia's malted barley production is limited due to the relatively inferior quality of domestic barley, but Russian producers have been actively expanding malting capacities lately. In the second quarter of this year, Russia imported 158,200 tonnes of malt, up from about 55,000 tonnes imported in January-March. Imports of malting barley amounted to 40,000 tonnes during the period, or 60 per cent more than in January-March.

22 September, 2004