Imported beer could ‘disappear’ from Russian retail

Imports of EU beer to Russia have halved in the last year, according to customs data, with a leading Russian distributor claiming that imported brews could account for less than 3% of total retail beer sales in 2026. Eugene Gerden reports.

The volume of all imported alcoholic drinks in the Russian market is rapidly declining as high tariffs and weak purchasing power of local customers force them to switch to domestically-produced drinks.

However, one category appears to be suffering more than most. Russia has drastically reduced its beer imports in recent months, with supply from the EU experiencing the most negative dynamics.

According to Russian newswire RIA Novosti, the latest customs data shows that EU beer imports to Russia halved in January 2026 compared to the same period last year. In fact, beer imports have reached their lowest level since early 2015. At present, monthly beer imports to Russia are about 200,000 decaliters. Among the largest suppliers are the Czech Republic (with a 48% share of all beer shipments to Russia), as well as Poland and Latvia with a 10% share each. Other major players are Germany and Lithuania, which account for 9% of beer shipments each.

‘Unfriendly countries’

Most Russian distributors and analysts expect the share of imported beer to continue to decline in 2026. This is partly due to the decision made by the state in September 2025 to increase tariffs on imports of malt beer from so-called ‘unfriendly’ countries from €1 per litre to €1.5 per litre.

Igor Khavsky, a co-owner of SVAM Group, one of Russia’s leading beer distributors, said that after the first increase to €1 per litre (in place from 1 January 2025), retailers almost completely stopped imports of foreign beer to the Russian market, and with the current rates, he expects the share of imported beer sales to drop below 3% of total beer sales in 2026.

Indeed, in 2025 sales of all beer (domestic-produced and imported) declined in Russia by 16.7% to 607,06 million decalitres. That said, according to Nielsen data beer still remains the best-selling alcoholic drink in Russia across the on-trade and off-trade, with a 44.5% share in the overall structure of sales of alcoholic drinks in the market.

The news follows Russia boosting its own beer exports by 25% last year, shipping its brews to countries including Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Abkhazia and Tajikistan. As db reported, freight organisation AgroExport revealed that preliminary estimates showed that “Russian beer exports surged above 33,000 metric tons during the first three months of 2025”.

Sanctions and entanglements

Russia was hit by international trade sanctions after Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with many global drinks giants either mothballing operations or selling up in Russia.

However, the sanctions did not immediately halt EU exports to the country, with some companies such as LVMH facing backlash for allowing its products to continue to enter Russia through “third party” intermediaries. A spokesperson for LVMH claimed in January 2025 that it was “impossible for Moët Hennessy to control the final destination of a product marketed by a distributor” and stressing the challenges of overseeing distribution networks globally.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer by volume, announced in 2022 that it would sell its interest in its Russian joint venture to its partner, Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes. However, it ran into problems when President Putin moved to place AB InBev’s Russian interests into temporary management under a decree published in April 2023, which grants the manager full control of the assets but blocks the ability to dispose of them.

In May 2023, French group Pernod Ricard succeeded in exiting the Russia market, and Carlsberg followed suit in December 2024 when it finally managed to divest its shares in its Russian subsidiary.

 

 

 

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