Data from the National Bureau of Statistics calculated by the SPUTNIK found that from January to October last year, China's beer supply to Russia increased by 60% to 29,800 tons, rising from sixth to third place in the ranking of beer exporters to Russia for the first time, pushing Belgium out of the top three.

As in 2023, Germany remains Russia's largest trading partner in this sector, selling 105,300 tons of beer to Russia in 10 months. Despite the decline in sales (down 24 per cent year-on-year), Germany maintained its lead.

In second place was the Czech Republic, which increased its exports to Russia by 27 per cent to 33,100 tonnes.

China ranked third. It was followed by Lithuania, which exported a similar amount to Russia (24,300 tons, almost the same as the same period in the previous year). Belgium, which ranked second in 2023, dropped to fifth place due to a one-third reduction in supply: it sold only 18,400 tons of beer to Russia between January and October 2024.

In sixth place was Poland, which saw a five-fold increase in sales (18,100 tons). The top 10 also included Latvia (16,500 tonnes, down 36 per cent), Kazakhstan (10,900 tonnes, down 28 per cent), the Netherlands (4,700 tonnes, up 19 per cent) and Austria (2,300 tonnes, up 14 per cent).