Ep. 2373 Anastasiia Filiuta of BIBIT LLC in Azerbaijan | Asia Wine Market: Almaty Special Edition

Today, once again, our conversation takes us beyond Kazakhstan across the Caspian sea to baku Azerweijan. Even though Azerweijan isn't technically part of Central Asia, our countries share very deep historical ties the Soviet heritage. And when it comes to wine, we're closely connected to. For today, our three key learning objectives are the first one. Understand the evolution of wine culture and consumer awareness in Azerbe John. Second, learn about the import and distribution landscape. So we are going to talk about the major players, how the international producers and in our case Italian ones can successfully enter the market. And third, we are going to identify current trends, gaps, and opportunities in Azerby John's wine market. So let's dive in. Welcome to Asia wine market. Almati, special edition with me, your host, Rosa. In this special series, we're exploring the growing wine culture of Kazakhstan, with almighty at the heart of it all. Each episode will meet with Italian wine professionals, importers, psalms, and producers who are shaping the future of wine in central Asia. Whether you are a winery looking to expand into new markets or a local expert curious about the market dynamics, you are in the right place. Hello, and welcome to Asia wine market, Almatis special edition. But today, once again, our conversation takes us beyond Kazakhstan across the Caspian Sea to Bhaku Azerweijan. Even though Azerweijan isn't technically part of Central Asia, our countries share very deep historical ties, the Soviet heritage. And when it comes to wine, we're closely connected to. And today's guest is Anastasia. She is a seasoned wine brand manager She's worked with names like Astoria wines, Donofogata, Castelare di Castelina, leaving their brand strategy, product launches, and market campaigns in Azerbaijan. So welcome, Anastasia. We are very happy to have you here today. Thank you. Hello for everyone. I'm really happy to be the part of this amazing project. Once again, we're very happy to have you here. So, Anastasia, let's start from the very beginning. Could you please briefly tell us how your journey into the world of wine began and what motivated you the most? You know, I have worked in the restaurant sector my whole life. And nine years ago, I was in charge with one project in Baku, and I found myself needing to understand the wine list and why one prosecco, by the way, from Astoria wine. That's how my journey started. Had so many different names I was curious about, and this sparked my interest, and I began to floor the world of wine starting with a glass of prosecco. Okay. And you're still closely working with prosecco and also closely working with Astoria? Yes. Next year, we will celebrate ten years anniversary in Anzerbaijan and we drive amazing results. Okay. That's pretty cool. In our countries, it's very popular. It's a very popular style. In Anzerbaijan, it start to be popular, like, six years ago, I could say that we did a lot of different events to improve the culture of aperitivo, the culture of glass of recycler due the morning time and due to start some dinners and to celebrate the life, which is also the sign of the brand for sure. Okay. Got it. And before we dive in into our market talks, Could you give us a quick snapshot of the country in general? It's population, key cities, and maybe some important background that can help our listeners and the wineries better understand the market. For sure, Azerbaijan is the country located in the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The population is about ten million people in the capital for sure is Baku City, the largest city and the most important culture and economic hub. We have another case cities like Ganja, soongayid, but Baku, it's, the main hub and all the wine things, cultural things, the global project, but f one happened every year. This year we have in September happened. Derbaijan Fisher has a rich history. It is a truth striking back to the Asian civilizations. It's also known for diverse landscape, this range of caspian sea comes like to mountains and rates of climates, like nine climates in one small country, which is really that brings curiosity for a lot of people that influence agriculture products, including wine, by the way, it's a lot of wine producers all around, uh, zerbaijan. The country as itself for now has a growing interest in wine with traditional winemaking dating back thousands of years, and now it start to grow and grow and become more recognized in global markets too. That is for sure what I won't say about the country, like, globally. Actually, it's very interesting because the first time in my life when I encountered the wines of Azerbaijan was in Beijing. In Beijing. Exactly. That's so pleasant to hear. As now, when producers are doing a big job to improve the knowledge about Observe by Jenny wines, they rebuild the heritage, which is also appreciable, from the site of wine, especially, from the country and not only. The fact that Azerbaijan is doing well with wine production also influences the wine import positively. That is hundred percent. If local producers are doing well, then it means that the importers are going to doing well as well. Everything is connected. All the wines are connected. Exactly. Okay. So for today, our three key learning objectives are the first one. Understand the evolution of mind culture and consumer awareness in Azerbaijan. Second, learn about the import and distribution landscape. So we are going to talk about the major players how the international producers and in our case Italian ones can successfully enter the market. And third, we are going to identify current trends, gaps, and opportunities in Azerby John's wine market. And to start, I'd like you to tell us about your current projects. So what is your main role within the Azure John Weinstein? I work for a company named Bebit LLC that imports and distributes wines mainly Italian wines, by the way. And my role covers everything from selecting the product, managing logistics, to developing and grow plan both for the product and the, I aim to promote wine through emotions and see my main role as a cultural umbrella Saddora wine in that sense. Currently, this year, I have seek this economic project for educational and, one press tour to our groups of radio plan. I use marketing to show people the fascinating world of wine that, how is our company working. This is our focus. This is how we do the wine sales through the marketing. This is to show our main goal, and that's how we get the success. Okay. Got it. Could you tell us more about the company again? How many Italian producers do you work with currently? This year, we will finish our portfolio with Italian wine selection. And for now, on behalf of thirteen, one producers. Until the end of the year, we are planning to be sixteen in the portfolio. We have for now more than one hundred thirty seven SKUs in our portfolio. And slowly slowly, we are also widening with the partners when we already signed the contract because we found some different ways how to develop more, the portfolio with them, and how to develop the market together. Mhmm. Could you tell us some of the bigger names that you have in your portfolio or maybe some of the regions you work with currently? For sure. I'm working with Astoria wines for sure. From the gavi, by the way, Carisolati releases the market also in the end of June, for some of the astronomic projects we do together. Castelara de Castelina, speech. I'm really happy for the celebrate hundred here this year, and it was really great opportunity to develop Forticello more deeper in our country. They're they're beautiful wines. Alright. Thank you a lot for your insights. And now let's shift to the wine scene in azerbaijan in general and to the consumers. So who are the typical wine consumers in azerbaijan today? And are you seeing any growing interests from particular groups like younger people or women, or maybe it's mostly wine professionals still. We work with different categories of people, and they drink wine in various ways. The fact is the woman has started drinking more wine. And for them, it has become a compliment food or a way to a chance a special occasion that is really good because that's more wine culture development in my opinion. Also, we are starting to develop the program how to work with generation z on the other hand. Now they are prefers to drink more wine than spirits, and it's gradually becoming the part of the daily culture. The wine industry for professionals in Azerbaijan has only started to grow in recent years, but it is now gaining a lot of interest. And we are trying to support them a lot. More and more people are to age our loan about the wine and how to improve their knowledge. For sure, as you said before, local producers in Azerbaijan, definitely diverse credit for this shift. Azerbaijan producers, as an excellent wine and local winemakers are doing a lot to promote divine culture So we are doing that together. And from your experience in Azerbijan, from your perspective, how has wine culture in Azerbijan evolved in general in recent years and how is wine perceived today? And what trends are you seeing in consumer behavior? There have been positive growth in wine consumption in azerbaijan. Even in just the past couple of years, we can see the great results. Consumer interest is increasing. And as I mentioned earlier, Adzerbaijani by making has been developing rapidly, increasingly as they're for sure from the market. Also, a lot of international projects are all banned and planning to open. And with their guidelines, they are teaching a lot of professionals how to create the wine cards and how to work with people, wine service. That helps a lot. And for sure, people in general starting to see wine as a part of the culture, with many wine bars, local project opening, and there is growing interest in various categories of sparkling wine too. Of course, we would love to see even more progress, but what we have in the market right now, it's already a great result. Mhmm. You mentioned a population in Azerbaijan. What about the population in Baku? The population in Baku is around five and half million people. So our target audience, the people with who we are working are mainly based in Baku. If you're speaking about azerbaijan, the market is in Baku. Mhmm. So you said five million people? Yes. That's a good number, I think, for our countries. That's a good number for sure if the country is not Muslim as a lot of people thinking sometimes, but for sure we have some number of people who are not drinking alcohol at all. But mostly, the country is well developed and open for new beginnings, open for new cultural integrations, and that's really helps a lot to improve. That's actually good to know because I was also curious I wanted to ask you about the religion and how it influences the market. You anticipated my question already and answered it. The people are open. The people are open to see to know, and it's not prohibited to do some from open online. We can do it openly, and it's really helpful. Okay. That is promising to know. That is very good to know. Right now, let's move from the consumers to what's they actually drink. So what are the best performing countries in general when it comes to wine? And also later, I would like you to tell us what are the best performing regions and styles when it comes to Italian wines? In the region, it's really easy for even any tourist to answer this question as nearly every second bottle of wine imported into the country's Italian without adopt Italian wines are the most popular in the country. And it's like usually forty five, fifty, sometimes even more percent from the regular wine cart would see everywhere. And the the best performing regions from Italy are Vanato in Tuscany. For sure, prosecco, and when it comes into the styles, it's Felicella. It's the minimalistic suave, and, of course, Chianti Bruno de Montalchino. Each imported typically offers a wide selection of producers from these regions. If you also try to influence some preferences, we try to promote something for the second year in a row now, we have a project focused on promoting Aetna and Gave wines. We are really seeing positive feedback in the form and rising demand. Mhmm. Alright. So it means that the consumer preferences might be shifted from Venittal, from Tuscany to somewhere else. Yes. For sure. But you need to work as a project as a whole project to improve. It's not easy, but it's possible. So that is why you need a lot of support from your suppliers too, from the wineries you work with. Yes. And that is the main thing we are doing the partnership, with Italian producers, and I'm really appreciate how they are involved for the our market and how they developing the knowledges about the cultural things and how they catch the idea of development. It's not fast, but it's about the quality flow. Mhmm. Okay. Got it. Let's shift to imports and distribution. So could you please tell us in general who are the major wine importers and distributors in Azerbaijan today. And also, what do they look for when choosing international wines? You know, there are five main wine importers and distributors. With us, SpeedBIT LLC, Compass International, Alcohol, Luxury wines, and a lot service. There are companies that keep players in my market and have significant influence over the wine distribution in the country. If you are talking about when they choose an international wines, I think they have primary focus on price quality balance, which is important, and the opportunity to establish long term partner shift with them. Critical factor is the support from the producer site, which includes providing marketing assistance, promotional support, and understanding the market's potential, which is really necessary. The importers also consider the capacity of the market and equines that have a strong chance of success based on local demand. Okay. Thank you for your answer. And because you're also a wine importer and you work closely with the international producers, It's not only about a positive things sometimes. Right? There are some things that could be improved in your partnerships. Could you please tell us in your work with international producers? What kind of challenges do you face? From time to time? I could say that for the new partnership that we are trying to look in now and trying to improve. The main problem is that producer thinks but we're super beautiful, sweet. Trust me. If you even will Google, if you will check all the beautiful events that happen in the country. And immediately, in producer's mind, there is came thought that we could sell here everything immediately. Unfortunately, it's not like that. It's not easy. And the main difficulty for me is to explain that the market is not so easy as they could see from the internet or maybe from the visit. The city is really well improving and beautiful, but to improve the wine culture, the brand, the wine category, you need to plan and do a really long promotion. So you need a lot of support from the producer's site for organizing some promotional events? In my opinion, it's not only producer. It's global work. Because a producer can do everything, but if importer is not involved as much as a producer, it's really hard to do some results. It's together work. And it's better to improve on this market step by step than to do something and expect something fast because slow development is a success development. Mhmm. The next thing that I would like to discuss with you is the import process could you walk us through the typical import process and give us a rough breakdown of the key costs involved, like import duties, value added tax, licensing fees, and maybe something else that I skipped So how does it influence the final price for the consumers? To be honest, we are really happy country because, by the license's fees, for example, for Horica, for some special traits, there is no any license needed because importer in charge and responsible for the quality of the product which comes across the border to observation. All the responsibility is on the importer shoulders. So for the wine import, we have a really strict rules. We have a customs duty that is one and a half euro per bottle. We pay every time. Excise tax, it's like two euro per liter reply. And for all of the invoice, which usually includes the transport, it means that by the transport, we also pay VAT eighteen percent. Mhmm. So every bottle will include eighteen percent of VAT. And we also need to pay for tech stickers applying. We also need to pay for that transport. Some additional issues happen on customs. So usually, like, for two and a half euro bottle, in our portfolio, it is not raising margin, it will cost thirteen euro. So the final price. Yes. The final price. And on the twelfth, it's gonna be even more. Okay. Thank you a lot for such a good breakdown of the prices. I was always interested in prices, how it builds up because people don't speak about that, I think. So thank you a lot for your breakdown. That was a very interesting thing to know. And now let's move on to some trends gaps and also some future opportunities for Italian wines. So you frequently cooperate with brands and different wine venues. As an importer, how do you use this space to engage with the consumers? Events to promote wines. This can include dinners, aperitivos, different pastings, welcoming, and, of course, on-site staff training for each of the wines we present. It's really necessary because people need to know what they're selling for the final consumer. The wine selection often depends on whether there is familiar available. If there isn't a specialist to explain the value and uniqueness of a particular wine, the customer is likely to choose something familiar, like popular, pinot grigio, in our countries, and, the basic primitive, for example, because it's really made the taste of azerbaijani people or another wine that's already known and trust. Mhmm. So you already started to mention some of the popular styles and some of the popular grapes So pinobrillo, Primitivo, and so I guess the third one would be prossecco, is style. Right? Yes. For sure. Prossecco is undoubtedly the leader, and it's interesting. Now the asolo do CG starts gaining strong momentum. It's really beautiful. We are really happy for this. And, we are seeing that Sicily is also becoming increasingly popular as well as a brusso region also because sometimes you could find a really beautiful, price. And quality wines. As I mentioned earlier, valpolicella, it's top seller, Kianti, and if you're a speak about a super tuscanyi, that's for First Asicaya, which is always in the short supply, remaining demand. We need it more now, Mark. It. However, now I feel that we are in the position to influence people's preferences. There is a certain level of trust in our work, and we already have a database of clients, which whom we can promote specific concepts like spontaneous fermentation for pecorino. That's what we will promote super soon. And that for sure gives an opportunity to introduce more complex wine, and it's beautiful. But as I mentioned, on average, it's not easy work to promote. Usually, we do the plan of two years work to stabilize volumes secure k leasing in segmentated restaurants and find the right client base in the specialized trade sector. Mhmm. Okay. Got it. And also coming back to your importing company, so your major clients, they are mostly on premise projects, like restaurants, wine bars, right? Yes. Yes. Our market is mainly based on Horica. Off trade, unfortunately, in the country is pretty weak. That is sad to say, but it's like this. Horica is really strong and we are really drunk and Horica sector, but for the off trade just developing, the wine shelf are not so wide. That's why to do a listing in a typical huge chain stores. It's not easy. Mhmm. Okay. Got it. Thank you. That is good to know as well. We already talked about some of the popular styles and regions. And in your opinion, what gaps still exist in the market? And are there any Italian wine categories or maybe grape varieties or regions, do you think could have a bigger, stronger potential? Maybe they're not well represented yet, but they could have a strong ground in Azerbe John in the future. I believe that all twenty regions of Italy have the potential to attack consumers in this country. It's matter of time and the right promotion, as I mentioned before. Right now, it's a great moment to develop the region of Sardinia. In my opinion, The Vermentina grape variety is very well received by the audience. It's a perfect matching term of all its quality, the same for Canal. It's the region that has a huge potential on the market. Okay. And I hope the wine producers from Sardinia will listen to this episode too, and they will start contacting you. I will be happy to discuss. Alright. It's almost time for us to wrap it up. Thank you a lot for the exact numbers that you shared with us and exact names. I think those are very practical things that all of us we are interested in. Is there anything else you would like to share with us? I think I would like to say that azerbaijani market is really a beautiful market. It's well developing. A lot of international projects and local beautiful projects will start work soon. And my suggestion is to visit that beautiful country, and if possible, find an opportunity to be the part of these wine culture growing. Yeah. And I also want to visit badly, even though our countries, they're so close but I've never visited Baku, but I want to visit it so much. So, by the end of the country of hospitality, for sure we are welcome anytime you need. Okay. So before we wrap up, I've got three rapid fire questions for you. So if you could answer them with one, two sentences in a short way, that would be good. So the first question is, what's one key thing Italian wineries should keep in mind when entering the market in Azerbaijan. Important thing is to build long lasting and strong relationship with the importer, study the market, segment the portfolio, and remember, it's not require a lot of money. It's just a desire and a bit of planning. Okay. I hope Italian winers will keep that in mind. We'll make a note of that. So the second question is if you could introduce one new wine trends or grape variety to azerwegian, what would it be and white? I would love to create a collection of volcanic wines. Italy is an incredible country where from the north to the south, you can find volcanic terawatts. And I would focus on all the appalachians are available. And just to mention how it's beautiful to improve the idea for the market of volcanic wines. I think people will be crazy involved and that's what I'm planning. That's actually very good. Yeah. And also this notion of volcanic wines, it's a very good for the promotion. It's something interesting. Okay. If you weren't working in wine, what other profession or industry could you see yourself in? I can't see myself nowhere anymore. When you enter the wine business when you enter, the wine world is better to say like this. You immediately forget about everything happen around because it's everything. It's a lot of science inside. It's a beautiful people. It's a culture, history, and economic issues. That's all built my passion, to live this life together with wine. Okay. This passionate wine people I think you're not the first person who's saying, I don't know. I would still be in wine. I cannot imagine myself without wine. They will find the way this changing market how to be in wine. And we will do the changing market grow for all of us because it's a world team. It's not only azerbaijan. It's a big community. Yes. Yeah. Right. It's a big work that should be done by all of us. Not separate. We shouldn't be separate on that and we should work together. Okay. Thank you a lot again. How could our listeners or maybe some producers who are interested in some partnerships contact you. It's easy to contact me. I'm answering every time, even an Instagram link.adin via WhatsApp. I think my work is, like, twenty four seven. And by mail for sure, it's, like, a typical way. But I'm happy to contact everyone, even if it's not opportunity for now on, maybe for the future, we could find something. I mean, sometimes it happened for us like this. Okay. And thank you again for joining us today, and I'm very happy that you were my guest from Baku. I was very happy to talk to you, and thank you for all the practical and beautiful insights. I hope to see you in Baku or in ALmaty. I'm also happy for this opportunity to share in the motions and experience. And thank you, Rosa, for having me for this beautiful project again. And, yeah, always welcome for everyone who wants to visit our country, and we will be happy to show all the heritage. Okay. Thank you a lot. And Kiao. Thank you. Kiao. Ciao. Thanks for listening to Asia wine market, Almati, special edition. Don't forget to subscribe and follow the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your parts. And if you are curious to discover more about the central Asian wine scene, join us at the Vineet Lake Calleksson roadshow on July seventh. See you in the next episode. And until then, cheers from Almaty.