OREANDA-NEWS  On 03 December was announced, that at the end of November, the first 20-foot container of Baltika and Arsenalnoye beer was shipped from St. Petersburg to the Uruguay port of Montevideo. Around 13,000 litres of beer produced by the Baltika Breweries will arrive in Latin America in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Baltika №3 Classic, Baltika №9 Extra, Arsenalnoye Classic and Arsenalnoye Traditional beer will provide a worthy addition to the holiday tables of residents of this Latin American country. Baltika will become the first producer supplying Uruguay with imported European quality beer in large volume packaging — from 1 to 2.5 litres.

Before dispatching the first container, Company specialists went through a multi-stage process of registering the products on the Uruguay market. The beer being supplied must conform to the norms established for imported alcoholic products in the Mercosur zone (Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, and Uruguay). Registration of products consists of several phases and includes an initial legalisation of the documents at the Uruguay Embassy and accreditation of the sanitary certificates and packaging, after which each product gets an individual number and import right into the territory of the country for five years, all of which is confirmed by a respective certificate. Then, each time when a container arrives in the port of Montevideo, the importer is obliged to present samples of the product for analysis and for conformity to the norms adopted in Uruguay, after which the final permission to sell in the country’s stores is issued. In the end, Baltika successfully coped with this labour-intensive task and received the necessary permits and certificates for its products.

The population of Uruguay is more than 3 million, of whom around 1.5 million live in the capital. During the initial phase, Baltika products will be distributed in large commercial networks of the capital and then in traditional retailing across the whole country through major wholesalers.

Among the main competitors of Baltika beer in Uruguay are products exported from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Germany. Those countries also have judged on its merits the potential of this Latin American country’s actively developing market.

Dmitri Kistev, Director, Export Sales of Baltika Breweries: ‘The start of deliveries to Uruguay is an important step in the development of our Company’s business in Latin America and will allow us also to enter other markets of the Mercosur zone, including Brazil and Argentina.’