The Detchino winery, one of Russia's largest producers of table, fortified, sparkling and champagne wines, has begun putting its products into one-litre Tetra Brik aseptic packaging. The firm's general director recently announced that US$500,000 in capital investment had been put into the project. Production capacity of Swedish-made Tetra Pak lines is rated at 8m litres of packaged wine per year and plans are to bring them to full operation some time this year. According to the Detchino, such a packaging project is the buzzword in Russia's alcohol business and in their view, Tetra packed wine could soon be highly competitive vis-a-vis traditionally bottled wines. This conclusion is drawn from analysis of such markets as the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chilean and German ones, where wines in Tetra Pack can command up to 60% share.
