Sweden’s Inkerman to Plant 1,000 Hectares of Vineyards in Crimea

Inkerman International business group will plant 1,000 hectares of vineyards in Crimea in five years, Alexei Lipko, director of the Inkerman Premium Vinery, told RIA Novosti.

"Unlike many Western investors, Inkerman founders will continue investments in Crimea, especially in vineyards. We will plant 120 hectares of new vineyards this year. A total of 1,000 hectares will be planted in the coming five years," Lipko said at an economic forum in Yalta.

He explained that new vineyards are needed due to the lack of resources for the vinery. Currently 22,000 tons of grape are harvested, enough to produce 24 million bottles of dry wine. It mostly sells in the Russian market.

Now the company owns 1,200 hectares of vineyards, with 730 hectares of new plants.

Inkerman International AB is a Swedish company. It owns 100 percent of Inkerman Premium Vinery shares, 75 percent of the Kachinsky Plus farming company’s shares (Sevastopol) and 96 percent of the Chernomorets farming company’s shares (the Bakhchisaraisky district, Crimea). In 2014, the company added a total of 200 million rubles to Sevastopol’s economy (nearly $4 million at the current ruble exchange rate). The minimum wage at the vinery will be 15-16,000 rubles ($300) in May 2015.

In Crimea and Sevastopol the companies of Inkerman group are combined into Inkerman business group. In 2013, the largest vinery in Eastern Europe and the CIS opened in the Bakhchisaraisky district of Crimea. Advanced technologies and Italian and French equipment are used there.

Inkerman-produced dry wines mostly sell in Russia (18 million bottles a year). Nearly 4.5 million bottles sell in Crimea.