They came out tall: Baltika will start producing beer hops under its own brand.
Baltika has applied for registration of the Baltika-Agro trademark, Izvestia has learned. Brewers are creating a brand for a subsidiary that is implementing a hop growing project in Chuvashia, a company representative said. Thus, Baltika implements a strategy of import substitution of raw materials for beer production. Currently, about 95% of the hops used in Russia are purchased abroad. When the domestic industry will become less dependent on imports — in the Izvestia article.
How are hops being imported in Russia
On November 6, the Baltika Brewing Company submitted an application to the Federal Intellectual Property Service (Rospatent) for registration of the Baltika-Agro trademark. It will apply to eight classes of the International Classification of Goods and Services: yeast for brewing, brewing beer, processing and processing hop cones, growing plants, and more. Izvestia has reviewed the document.
The company is creating a brand for a subsidiary that started growing hops in Chuvashia, a representative of Baltika confirmed to the editorial board. According to him, the creation of a separate legal entity and trademark registration is one of the stages in the development of the project on import substitution of raw materials for beer production.
Baltika has acquired an operating farm in Chuvashia and has already laid 38 hectares of new hop trees. The manufacturer also signed a contract for the supply of the first industrial complex for drying and harvesting hops, developed at the Techmash machine-building plant in Cheboksary. In addition, Baltika has launched a workshop for deep processing of hops and is implementing a training program for hop specialists at the Chuvash State Agrarian University, a company representative said.
Baltika is one of the largest beer producers in Russia with a monthly production capacity of 52 million barrels (about 620 million barrels per year). It was founded in 1990 in St. Petersburg.
The company's portfolio includes 50 beer brands (Baltika, Nevsky, Arsenalnoye, Yarpivo, Don, and others). The company operates eight factories in different cities of Russia.
In July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the transfer of Baltika to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency. In December 2024, by presidential decree, Baltika's assets were removed from temporary management, and in February 2025, Carlsberg Group sold the Russian company for almost 2.3 billion Danish crowns (about $320 million) to VG Invest, whose beneficiaries were not disclosed.
Why increasing hop production is important for the industry
Hops account for a small proportion of the raw materials needed for beer production, but are a critically important ingredient, said the Director of Government Relations at Beverages Together (formerly AB InBev Efes). Vyacheslav Efimov. Without it, it is impossible to ensure either a characteristic taste and aroma, or stable product quality, he said.
Currently, about 95% of the hops used for beer production in Russia are purchased abroad, the representative of Baltika noted. So far, Russian hop growers are able to cover no more than 5-7% of the needs of the domestic brewing industry, the executive director of the Association of Beer, Malt and Beverage Producers (APP) confirmed Vyacheslav Mamontov.
Russian producers are currently receiving subsidies for planting and caring for perennial plants, including hop trees, a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture told Izvestia. Concessional lending, leasing and state support for land reclamation activities are also available to hop growers, he noted.
It takes about 7-10 years of hard work by business, the scientific community and the government to provide Russian brewers with the necessary hops, Vyacheslav Efimov noted. The problem lies not only in increasing production volumes, but also in breeding a wide range of its varieties. According to the expert, some bitter subspecies of hops are not grown in the country yet. The introduction of these varieties into Russian agricultural production requires significant investments and specialized knowledge.
Vyacheslav Yefimov believes that the expansion of state support measures could be a significant impetus to the development of hop farming. For example, government assistance in developing breweries' own investment programs for import substitution of raw materials, Vyacheslav Mamontov added. In his opinion, such a measure would create stable demand for Russian hops and reduce dependence on supplies from abroad.
Since 2021, the hop harvest in Russia has increased by 1.7 times and amounted to 328.8 tons by the end of last year, according to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture. The total area of Khmelnik reached 332.4 hectares (+6.9% year-on-year), the representative of the department noted. The pace of laying new hopfields is also growing: in 2024, 136.9 hectares were laid, which is 3.8 times higher than a year earlier.
By 2030, the Ministry of Agriculture expects to lay 1.5 thousand hectares of hop forests, which will make it possible to cover the brewers' needs for these raw materials by 50%, said Oksana Lut, the head of the department, in July.
By the end of 2025, hop production in the country will amount to about 400 tons, the representative of the department said. This is 20% more than a year earlier, said Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics. According to his estimates, this corresponds to about 8% of the total demand of the domestic brewing industry. Taking into account the plans already announced, this figure will reach 20-25% by 2028, he believes. By this period, the gross harvest of hops will amount to more than 1.2 million tons, the Ministry of Agriculture expects.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
