Sanctions left tea and canned food producers without packaging material

Russian packaging manufacturers began to experience a shortage of raw materials due to sanctions imposed with the start of the war in Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko spoke about this in an interview with RIA Novosti, commenting on attempts to produce domestic packaging after foreign manufacturers left the country.

“A lot of questions came up. For example, tea and coffee producers needed filter paper, tea bags needed wire, canned food manufacturers needed rings for cans, and so on. And it is important to bring food manufacturers and manufacturers of related materials and packaging into one chain,” Abramchenko admitted.

According to the official, the concerned departments are planning how they will solve the accumulated problems: through parallel imports, supplies from friendly countries or production within the country, “if creating new production is cost-effective due to domestic capacity in the market,” he specified.

Part of the packaging production could be solved with the help of Tetra Pak’s Russian division, which is slated to leave the country in the summer of 2022. “Back in June it was really an experiment, but now it is already industrial use of cardboard as a basis for baby food – 200 ml packages for juices and dairy products,” said Abramchenko.

In June 2022, Ramaz Chanturia, general director of the Roschaikofe Association, spoke about the possible problems of Russian tea producers with filter paper for tea bags. According to him, about 65 per cent of the tea sold in Russia is tea in single tea bags, but no one makes filter paper for them in the country.