Quotas cap Russian wine at 1.5 million of Belarus's 35-million-litre market
At a producer-importer meeting in Minsk, Russian winemakers said their wine holds only 1.5-2 million litres of Belarus's 35-million-litre annual consumption, against an estimated potential of 20 million litres. Import quotas were named the main barrier, alongside a price gap of 100 rubles per litre for wine bottled from imported bulk versus about 170 rubles for Russian wine.
Winemakers from Russia's Krasnodar Krai met Belarusian importers in Minsk at a business event billed as “Russia-Belarus: a dialogue of producers and importers of wine products”. The Kuban region was represented by companies from Gelendzhik, the Temryuk district and Abrau-Dyurso. The central question was the gap between what Russia currently ships to Belarus and what its industry believes the market could absorb.
Participants included Roman Chekushov, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Roman Kurinny, head of the consumer sector department of Krasnodar Krai, and Zhanna Belovol, chair of the board of the Association of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Russia (AVVR).
A 35-million-litre market, 1.5 million for Russia
Belarus consumes around 35 million litres of wine a year. Russian wine accounts for only 1.5-2 million litres of that volume. The AVVR estimates the realistic potential for Russian shipments at 20 million litres annually, which would be more than half the Belarusian market.
Krasnodar Krai's own contribution is smaller still. Kuban producers shipped 39,000 decalitres of wine to Belarus in 2024 - 390,000 litres - and roughly 17,000 decalitres, or 170,000 litres, since the start of 2025. The region therefore supplies a minority of the Russian wine volume already present on the market.
Quotas versus Union State rules
The existing import quota system was named as the key barrier. AVVR representatives argue that quotas on Russian wine contradict the principles of free movement of goods within the Union State of Russia and Belarus and within the Eurasian Economic Union. The association has proposed a special preferential regime for Russian wine and its complete exclusion from quota allocation.
The quota question has already been escalated to the level of the Standing Committee of the Union State. Because Belarusian plants do not work with a domestic grape harvest, the quota regime limits competition at the bottling and distribution stage rather than shielding local viticulture.
A 70-ruble gap per litre
Pricing is the second constraint. A litre of wine produced in Belarus from imported bulk costs an average of 100 rubles, against about 170 rubles for a litre of Russian wine. Belarusian enterprises do not make wine from their own grapes; they operate on European wine materials, importing bulk and bottling it locally.
Reaching the association's 20-million-litre figure would require a ten- to thirteenfold increase on current Russian volumes. In practice it would mean Russian bottled wine displacing a large share of the output that Belarusian plants now produce from European bulk, at a cost base roughly 70 rubles per litre lower.
Shelf presence rather than one-off volumes
Chekushov said the focus is not on a single increase in shipments but on establishing Russian wines on the Belarusian market over the long term. Direct contact with Belarusian importers, he said, allows producers to take the market's requirements into account more precisely.
The figures cited at the meeting:
- Belarusian wine consumption: about 35 million litres a year
- Russian wine on that market: 1.5-2 million litres
- AVVR potential estimate: 20 million litres a year
- Kuban shipments: 39,000 decalitres (390,000 litres) in 2024, about 17,000 decalitres (170,000 litres) since the start of 2025
- Price per litre: 100 rubles for wine from imported bulk, about 170 rubles for Russian wine
