OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2010. Beer marking and packaging requirements should be unified in Belarus and Russia, Baltika brewery Sales Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Yanina Mashkova told.

“We believe Belarusian and Russian regulations must not be contradictory, they must be balanced and harmonized, including packaging and marking requirement,” she said, commenting on the situation when packaging of Russian beer needs to be redone if beer is exported to Belarus.

Regulatory issues were discussed during the recent session of the Business Cooperation Council of Belarus and St. Petersburg.

Baltika sales in Belarus rose 7% on the year in January-September 2009. Mashkova sees Baltika share on the Belarusian market at 10%-11% in 2010.

“We believe our share will remain stable at 10%-11%, and in conditions of the Customs Union this share suits us. We have no plans to aggressively conquer the market,” she said.

Baltika will try to launch new products every year, restyle packaging and use other promotion instruments. There will be no serious market changes, though,” Mashkova said.

As Belarus’ economic partner, Baltika bought over 400 million Russian rubles’ worth of Belarusian products in 2009 – raw materials, crown caps, PET granulate, etc. The brewery spends almost 50% of export revenues on acquisition of Belarusian products.

Baltika’s indirect taxes transferred to the Belarusian budget exceeded 240 million Russian rubles in January-September 2009.

Baltika has no specific investment plans regarding Belarus now, Mashkova said.

“Belarus is a priority market for the brewery, but there are no plans to acquire production facilities in Belarus.”