Belarus, Minsk: Dednovo, a Belarussian brewery, and Detroit-Belarus Brewing Company LLC of the United States, have set up a joint company called the Belarussian Brewing Company, the Mogilevoblimuschestvo fund told Interfax. The joint venture, set up at Dednovo, was established on February 19.

Detroit-Belarus Brewing Company received the controlling stake of 50% plus one share in the new company. The foreign company cleared Dednovo's debts to the budget and budget funds and paid off wage arrears.

The U.S. company plans to overhaul production, increasing capacity first to 100 million liters of beer a year and then to 200 million liters.

Dednovo produced 1.8 million liters of beer in 2003, compared with 5.5 million in 2002. The plant plans to start work at the end of February after closing for over two months.

23 April, 2004