Russian brewers talked about the development of the industry after becoming world leaders

Russia is showing significant growth in the global ranking of leaders in the foam industry. Despite the downward trend in beer production, domestic companies are showing growth, overtaking even Germany. Over the past year, Russia has increased volumes by 30%. At the same time, one third of the production is sent to China.

"Due to the arrival of craft beer consumption culture in Asian markets, we naturally became interested in our technological approaches to processing raw materials and producing a product," said Sergey Kret, a brewing technologist.

After 2022, when hops in Russia almost did not grow, and supplies from abroad were blocked, the Russian side began to import raw materials in parallel, as well as independently create equipment. At the same time, the situation in Germany is the opposite, due to the fact that after the abandonment of Russian gas, the authorities invested in alternative energy sources. This led to an increase in production tariffs and a drop in volumes.

"In a sense, we can say that German beer is losing its importance because production volumes are declining. That's a fact. But this trend is observed all over the world. In the USA, for example, the same thing is happening. And, as a rule, not large and well—known breweries are closed, but those that have a small production volume," explained Heinrich Mayer, head of the BarthHaas reports project.

Beer sommelier Yuri Susov said that some German beers that are shipped to countries are made using accelerated maturation technologies and taste different from what is drunk in Germany.

"There are, let's say, two types of German beer. This is a beer that is drunk by the Germans themselves and which the Germans brew for export. We have a lot of obscure jars sold in stores that are not available on the German domestic market. Germans don't drink this kind of beer," he commented.

Baltika noted that its return to the ranking of the world's largest breweries to 12th place shows that the company is moving in the right direction, reviving Russian brewing and developing it to a new level.

On July 2, Vyacheslav Mamontov, Executive Director of the Association of Beer, Malt and Beverage Producers, announced that Russian producers had taken leading positions in the world ranking, which indicates the high importance of brewing companies in the country. This was influenced, among other things, by the nationalization of Baltika (formerly Carlsberg) and OPH Vereinigte Brauereien (formerly Heineken) companies in Russia. For example, the Russian "Baltika" took the 12th place.