Georgia, Tbilisi: Kazbegi, a leading brewer in Georgia, may set up a joint venture for bottling chilled beverages in the Netherlands with the Dutch company Bavaria N.S., company sources told Interfax. Plans also call for shipping Kazbegi non-alcoholic beverages and beer to the Netherlands, according to Interfax.

Nikoloz Bakhtadze was cited as saying that talks with the Dutch company have begun talks on getting the Georgian company the rights to bottle 'Bavaria' brand beer, which would make it possible for Kazbegi to expand its product line.

Kazbegi was set up in 1994 at the Tbilisi brewery. It currently comprises 38 enterprises that brew 10 kinds of beer, make six kinds of soda and twelve 'Kholodny chai' (Cold Tea) beverages. In 2003, Kazbegi produced roughly 50 million liters of product, of which 20% was exported to Russia, Ukraine and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries, as well as to the United States, Britain, Germany and Iraq.

04 December, 2004