OREANDA-NEWS. President of Baltika Breweries Anton Artemiev spoke at the round-table discussion of Russian and EU industrialists in Lisbon (Portugal)

The role Baltika plays in enhancing business relations between Russia and Europe was the core subject of Anton Artemiev’s speech made at the second plenary session of the round-table discussion. During the session the participants talked about the options of exploring business potential of EU-Russia relations in anticipation of Russia’s accession to the WTO.

Anton Artemiev, President of Baltika Breweries: "Russia today is not only oil and gas. The contribution of retail and manufacturing sectors to the country’s GDP exceeds that of oil and gas production by four times. In Russia, and at Baltika Breweries in particular, more often the innovation technologies are emerged, which can be successfully implemented in other countries as well."

The round-table discussion by Russian and EU industrialists is an ongoing forum for the business circles established by the Russian-European Summit in July 1997. The leaders of the business community and prominent Russian politicians meet on an annual basis to discuss a wide range of current problems in the field of business and industry.

The examples of successful implementation of Russian and European business potential have been included in this year’s session. Consideration has been given to more intensive and reliable cooperation elements aimed at the creation of the Common Economic Space between Russia and EU countries.

Minister of Economic Development and Trade Elvira Nabiullina, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, General Director of Rosoboronexport Sergey Chemezov, Chairman of the X5 Retail Group N.V. Board of Directors Lev Khasis, GasTerra B.V. CEO Gertjan Lankhorst all delivered their speeches at the second plenary session.

Baltika Breweries is the leader of the Russian brewing industry. It has been awarded the title of the Best Russian Exporter for the sixth time in a row. The Company’s products are exported to 45 countries. In the first half of 2007 total export sales volume has increased by 15% year-on-year and amounted to 0.9 mln hl. With license sales in Ukraine the sales growth abroad in H1 2007 grew by 25.2% compared with the same period of 2006. Export sales of the Company’s products account for more than 70% of all Russian beer exports, underlining the status of Baltika as an international company. Now every eighth bottle of Baltika brand beer is sold abroad.

Baltika today is Europe’s second beer brand in terms of volume. This year we have implemented several unique projects, one of them was the launch of Baltika beer production in the UK.