Beverages from Georgia return to Russian market

After a 6-year-long embargo, Georgian drinks get back to the Russian market, namely, the lemonade "Zedazeni" produced by the recently opened "Georgian Beer Company", said its Commercial Director Kakha Paichadze.

He did not exclude that in the near future the beer "Zedazeni" may also appear in the Russian market.

"Our trading partner is the Russian Company "Mir Napitkov" (World of Drinks), which mediated our negotiations with the Russian party. Today, we plan to ship the first batch – 45,000 bottles of lemonade; and in 2-3 days, we'll start selling the drink in Moscow and Moscow Region," the "Business-Georgia" quotes Mr Paichadze as saying.

The laboratory examination has shown that the drink "Zedazeni" meets all relevant Russian standards, the "Interfax" reports.

The import of Georgian wines, wine materials and mineral water was banned by "Rospotrebnadzor" (Russian Agency for Consumer Supervision) in the spring of 2006, because of quality complaints and use in Georgia of harmful pesticides in growing grapes. The earlier imported Georgian wines were withdrawn from sale, which resulted in million-worth losses among Georgian businessmen.