Czechia’s exports of beer increased year on year in 2024, which was the first spike in beer exports to Russia after a slump caused by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent severing of business links to Russia.   

Although the Czech Beer and Malt Association (CSPAS) rejects that its member breweries exported to Russia after 2022 and says that CSPAS cannot control trade carried out by middlemen, the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) insists its figures are correct.

“If the goods made it to Russia through other countries, then it is not possible to trace it in the foreign trade figures. CZSO always knows only the first country to where the goods are exported,” CZSO’s spokesperson Jan Cieslar was quoted as saying by the Czech Press Agency (ČTK).

Cieslar added that “information is not available to CZSO” when the goods are exported to third countries. The country’s major breweries, including Pilsner, Staropramen, Budvar and Heineken’s local branch, told the business section of online news outlet Seznam Zprávy (SZ) that none of them export directly to Russia, which is also seen as a risky destination.  

“On long-term bases, we consider Russia, in light of the unstable business environment and bad rule of law conditions for Czech entities, as an unsuitable destination for Czech companies,” Minister of Industry and Trade Lukáš Vlček told SZ on January 14.

While for the whole of 2023, Czechia exported beer worth CZK728mn (€28.9mn), beer exports to Russia from January-October 2024 amounted to CZK819m, which is an increase of 12.4% y/y, according to CZSO.  

This makes Russia the third largest beer export destination after Germany and Slovakia, ČTK noted, adding that Russian state-linked agency RIA described Czechia and Germany as the two largest beer importers to Russia.

Czechia exported beer worth CZK2.15bn to Germany and worth CZK1.64 bn to Slovakia from January to October 2024. Along with Russia, Poland is the only other destination where the volume of exports exceeded CZK0.5bn.

The news of increased beer exports to Russia reinvigorated the reporting of more goods registering a spike in exports to Russia even though the overall volume of exported goods to Russia continues to fall.

SZ wrote that the volume of exported organic chemicals increased from January – October 2024 by 39.9% y/y to just over CZK2bn. Furniture, hospital beds spiked by 144.1% to CZK0.54bn, plastic products by 34.8% to CZK71bn, and oil seeds such as poppy seeds by 35.2%. to CZK0.42bn.

Both of the two Czech hospital bed producers – Linet and Proma Reha – told SZ that they are not exporting any products to Russia, while the Chair of the Czech poppy association, Pavel Cihlář told SZ “I don’t know who exports there [to Russia].”

Russian-linked businesses inside Czechia, which has traditionally been a popular destination for Russian elites, who sent their children for schooling there and purchased lucrative real estate in the country’s prime locations, remain also active.

Investigative website Page Not Found published a story this week that Russian discount retail chain Mere, which is facing sanctions in Ukraine, is opening a fifth warehouse in Czechia.

Mere has launched its expansion in outskirt regions in northern Bohemia, struggling with high unemployment and hoist of social issues. It opened its first store in 2019 in the northwest town of Most, whose continued struggles to catch up with the rest of the country bne IntelliNews covered last year, and the latest store is to open in the regional capital Ústí nad Labem.  

In a twist of irony, Mere is taking advantage of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who fled to Czechia and were quickly absorbed by manual and low-paid jobs in the labour market designed to swallow a cheap workforce.

Head of the National Agency to combat organized crime (NCOZ), Jiří Mazánek told SZ in an interview this week that NCOZ is addressing “several cases linked to sanctions” against Russia.

“It is organized crime of Russian type involving, of course, other countries in the region,” Mazánek said, adding that “we are afraid Czechia serves to launder dirty money and that are legislation is weak in this.”