However, there are not many Belarusian goods in Lithuania. For example, cosmetics can be found in a rare retail chain, mostly sold online, in small shops, and in marketplaces.
Retail chains: few Belarusian goods
Vaida Budrienė, Head of Communications at Iki, informed BNS that the retail chain has not concluded direct contracts for the supply of Belarusian goods, but receives some of them from wholesalers.
Norfa spokesman Darius Ryliškis told BNS that Belarusian products, like Russian ones, are on the network, but very few are candy, beer, vodka and bitters: “We have been trading for a long time.”
He also assured that so far there is no knowledge that the Belarusians will cut off supplies.
D. Ryliškis could not say whether the history of the landing of the plane in Minsk affected the purchases of Belarusian products.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s not that goods, so that trade fluctuations can be felt immediately, ”he explained.
According to Ernesta Dapkienė, Director of Maxima’s Communication and Image Department, this year’s sales of Belarusian products decreased by 21% compared to last year, and the change was due to lower alcohol sales.
We sell products of all Lithuania’s neighbors in the network, but the range of Belarusian goods is the smallest: salt, canned fish and other products, soft drinks, strong alcohol and industrial goods.
“We have been trading in these goods from Belarus for a long time,” said E. Dapkienė.
A large part of Belarusian products is purchased from intermediaries, but Maxima buys alcoholic beverages directly.
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The cosmetics trade is stable so far
According to Eglė Aleknaitė, the director of the company Belita Kosmetika, which sells Belarusian cosmetics, the company does not feel any political influence on trade yet, its purchases have remained similar as before. However, according to her, the company orders less goods from Belarus.
“Currently, the events in Belarus did not have a noticeable difference in sales,” says E. Aleknaitė.
“In a physical store, customers sometimes discuss events and state a fact, but they don’t link the consumption and purchase of products directly to events,” she said.
According to her, sometimes customers fear that their favorite Belarusian goods will disappear, at that time “what percentage” of them say that they will no longer buy Belarusian cosmetics in order not to support the Lukashenko regime.
“Very rarely, but it happens when people say that they do not want to support, do not want to buy,” said E. Aleknaitė, the head of Belita Kosmetika.
She did not hide that there are fears about the future of the business – if the ban on importing Belarusian cosmetics into Lithuania, the company would face bankruptcy.
Arūnas Varneckis, the owner of another Belarusian cosmetics company Spekuliacija, which supplies Belarusian cosmetics to Lithuania, also claimed that BNS had not noticed any changes in trade yet, but said that in 2014, Russian goods were abandoned due to events in Ukraine.
“It simply came to our notice then. Apparently, people are against the regime, not against ordinary people who produce that product, ”said A. Varneckis.
He acknowledged that the company’s operations would not be disrupted if the supply of Belarusian cosmetics were disrupted, it would suffer if transit through Belarus stopped.
“We are transporting more from Ukraine. There are already problems – trucks are waiting on the walls for two or three days when they enter. If it closes the borders altogether, it will affect logistics, it will become more expensive, because everything will have to be transported through Poland. (…) Our goods are relatively cheap, it is not worth flying, because they would become more expensive and uncompetitive, ”said the head of Speculacijos.
Mantas Zakarka, the head of the Lithuanian Association of Alcoholic Beverages and Producers, says that little Belarusian alcohol enters Lithuania.
“Most of our members have no production from Belarus at all, and those who do have it up to a percentage of total imports. These are unit products, ”M. Zakarka informed.
According to Saulius Galadauskas, President of the Lithuanian Brewers’ Guild, no brewer belonging to the guild transports beer made in Belarus to Lithuania.
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