OREANDA-NEWS From January to October 2024, wine supplies to Russia decreased by 1.5 times. Maxim Chmora, head of the Department of Federal Customs Revenue and Tariff Regulation of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, told about this at the Russian Wine Forum, his words are quoted by TASS.

Wine imports fell to 357.7 thousand tons against 532.4 thousand tons a year earlier. The main suppliers were Italy (29 percent of shipments), Georgia (25 percent), Spain (10 percent), Portugal (5 percent) and France (5 percent).

"They have lost all the countries that we consider unfriendly. They lost a different number of percentages, but all, in fact, these percentages, we can say that Georgia gained in this top five," explained Chmora.

Sales of Russian wine abroad have increased by 20 percent since the beginning of the year. Drinks from Russia were mainly supplied to China (48 percent), Turkey (14 percent), Abkhazia (13 percent), Latvia (11 percent) and Israel (3 percent).

Against the background of a decrease in wine supplies from unfriendly countries, import duties for which have already been raised to 25 percent and are considering increasing to 50, demand for domestic wines is growing in Russia. According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, the total volume of wine production by the end of the year is projected at about 70 million decaliters (dal). So far, domestic producers have managed to produce 47 million dals of similar alcoholic beverages, more than in the same period last year.

Speaking at the forum, the owner of Abrau-Durso, Boris Titov, proposed to lift the restrictions on the time of sale for wine produced in Russia. According to him, domestic drinks do not need to be limited in any way and, moreover, not included in the alcohol category. With such an idea, he addressed Dmitry Kiselyov, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Russia (AVVR), and other participants in the discussion.