Lithuanian brewery Volfas Engelman saw its sales in Taiwan increase 23 times, LTN news website in Taipei reported on Saturday.
Before Christmas, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry invited the island’s residents to support Lithuanian businesses and choose Volfas Engelman production for the holiday season.
“If you're looking for something to #DrinkResponsibly this Christmas, you couldn’t do better than trying some Volfas Engelman beer. We can't imagine a market in which they wouldn't sell well,” the ministry wrote on Facebook.
“However, since October, the PRC [China] has cancelled orders causing catastrophic losses for the company. We can't stand idly by while China resorts to coercive economic measures to threaten our European partner. We support good businesses with good products!” it added.
According to Marius Horbačauskas, the CEO of Volfas Engelman, stores in China are no longer selling Lithuanian products. The brewery might lose up to 500,000 euros in revenue due to the loss of the Chinese market, he told the Lrytas.lt news website.
Volfas Engelman expects to compensate for the loss by increasing sales in other markets, including Taiwan, but “it could take a few years because we’ve been growing our business in China for seven years”, Horbačauskas said.
In 2021, Volfas Engelman exported around 180,000 litres of beer to Taiwan, 23 times more than in 2020.
Huang Janyao, a Taiwanese representative in Lithuania, visited the brewery in Kaunas last month to discuss further expansion of the company’s exports to Taiwan, the island’s newspaper the Liberty Times reported.
Relations between China and Lithuania have deteriorated after Vilnius decided to deepen ties with Taiwan, which is seen as a breakaway republic by Beijing.
In response, China has halted freight trains to Lithuania, stopped issuing food export permits, cut credit limits and raised prices for Lithuanian companies, and also at one time removed Lithuania from its customs systems.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
