Despite the sanctions and other risks in business with Russia, Latvia’s exports to Russia are stable, Latvian companies exported goods to Russia in the first half of the year in the amount of 560 million euros, which is even slightly more than in the first half of 2022, the LTV program “de facto”.
The list of exporters published by the Central Statistics Office (CSB) shows that a wide range of industries continue to use the opportunity to earn money in the Russian and Belarusian market after the start of the war. There are also companies that started cooperation after the beginning of the war.
The list published by CSB includes 169 exporters to Russia and 94 to Belarus. For some of them, the annual reports also show how much of the turnover is made by the Russian or Belarusian market. In some cases, the latest publicly available data is only for 2021, the program emphasizes.
The published list includes various companies, for example AS “Grindeks”, SIA “Pernod Ricard Eastern Europe Operations”, AS “Olainfarm”, SIA “Green Trace”, SIA “Bohnekamp” and others.
The program emphasizes that, judging by the turnover, the largest company on the list is the pharmaceutical company “Grindeks”, which exports to Belarus, while “Grindeks” subsidiary “Kalceks” is one of the largest companies that exports to Russia. The annual report of the concern for 2022 states that the revenues from the Russian market were a little over 70 million euros, or a quarter of the turnover. The company chose not to answer questions about the attitude towards trade with Russia.
Among the exporters is also another pharmaceutical giant “Olainfarm”, which allegedly sent a description with plans to break into new markets, at the same time emphasizing that it is allowed to export medicines to Russia, the program says.
It has already been reported that on August 16, Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone (NA) instructed CSB to publish the list of entrepreneurs exporting to Russia and Belarus, and to update this information once a month.
CSB published the list on August 16, including companies that have exported to Russia and Belarus since the beginning of 2022 and in the first half of 2023.
The published list caused indignation of a number of companies included in the list on social networks, stating that they stopped cooperation with Russia and Belarus immediately after the war in Ukraine started by Russia on February 24, 2022. “Valmieras stikla šciedra”, “SAF Tehnika”, “Dobeles dzirnavnieks”, as well as the president of the Confederation of Latvian Employers (LDDK) Andris Bite, who owns the company “Karavela”, also criticized the incorrect list in the opinion of entrepreneurs.
Subsequently, CSB updated the previously published list of companies that export to Russia and Belarus, excluding from it the information for 2022 and publishing only the current list for June 2023.
Money, PHOTO: LETA © Edijs Palen
2023-08-27 18:32:04
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