Ep. 491 Future Of Wine Capital In Central Asia | wine2wine Business Forum 2020

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Italian wine podcast as wine to wine twenty twenty media partner is proud to present a series of sessions chosen to highlight key themes and ideas and recorded during the two day event held on November twenty third and twenty fourth twenty twenty. Wind to wine twenty twenty represented the first ever fully digital edition of the business to business forum. Visit wine to wine dot net, and make sure to attend future editions of wine to wine business forum. So good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Piero mastroberdino. I'm owner of Master Veratino winery, and I'm also a full professor of business management, in Italian State University, and I also am, the president of the instituto Grandi Mahk, key premium brands, of Italy. It's a pleasure to be here and to introduce, Artiam lebedy effect that is, the president of Kazakhstan, so many association who we left today a session that is dedicated to his country, and, to what is happening in, this part of the world concerning the wines and wine business. So in a very few words, I would like to, ask Artium EBITDA to introduce himself And to start is a presentation that we will follow with great interest. Of course, we will have a chat, on the on the other platform. We have a chat available for all the discussions in order to get answers and to have the possibility for Artium to give, to allow me questions to give answers, to these questions on the chat or, or or live, of course. So Artium, it's a great pleasure to have you here. And please start your presentation. Yeah. Hello, Peter. First of all, thank you very much for this opportunity to to, make the session with you. It's a great pleasure. I'm a very big fan of your winery and of Italian and, the vine color at all. And, yeah, we can start. I think probably, can you see my, presentation? Can you see my screen with the presentation? Yeah. Excellent. So my name is Artem Lebidev. Artome Lebidev. I'm the president of customeriacet Station and the WCT diploma holder from Vinacademia Oscar Lake and certified Somalia and the big Italian vine lover and wine ambassador. So I would like to say, like, a few words twenty minutes speech, about them, Kazakhstan and the surrounding countries and regions. And, what happened here. So today's topic, you can see it, on the screen. So what is Kazakhstan? Where is Kazakhstan? Who else I will explain, make a, a little historic overview of the region of the great state I will explain what is it if you don't know, what I'm speaking about. So I will explain a little bit about modern times in terms of the terroir, in terms of vine and other beverage production. About, of course, consumption because it's, for for this session, I think it's even more important, about, local buying business, about, like, this region, Kazakhstan and surroundings. Like, a most under, underrated wine region, wine consumption, wine production region of the world for me personally. And, about, like, the future of the almaty city as the future buying capital of, of this region of middle or central Asia. And and, with great pleasure, I will answer your questions if there will be any. So let's I think let's start. So what is Kazakhstan and where is Kazakhstan? It's a very huge country. First of all, it's a number nine in the world and number one in the world landlocked if we're speaking about landlocked country. Yeah. So the area is huge. You can see where is it. It's, from the south of Russia and border the, Kyrgyzstan, and turkmenistan in the south. With the have a, border with China on the eastern part, very close to Mongolia. And, on the western part, it border the Caspian sea. A lot of people told about it's like a Caspian lake, but it's sea. And after the lake, we have, Armenia, and, etcetera. So it's, Kazakhstan is about eighteen millions people, eighteen million residents and a little bit growing every year. But, with this huge area, This amount of people is very, very low. So we have a six people per square kilometer. It's one of the most, low amount in the world, in the whole world. So since nineteen ninety seven, the capital is no few years ago, the name was Astanite was changed. And, it was moved from Almaty, from the city, what, which I'm speaking about now. And Almaty is largest city. So the nursultan is the capital, and Almaty is the largest city. And, the most important thing in terms of local economy is that, Kazakhstan has a lot of, natural resources of, deposit of different minerals guess and, etcetera. So, it could be very, very, very powerful if money will be pending the best way, not not like out. But I think a lot of people know this situation. So Now let's speak a little bit about the history. So I think, you know, that, the cradle of the wine culture, cradle of end production is a Caucasus mountains, for instance, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Iran, maybe, So from, this, from this center for from this cradle of vine, the vine culture started to, like, six, six thousand years ago, eight thousand years ago. The vine culture start to go to all the directions, to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south. Of course, to the north is not, for for Vites, for a vine production, but the way on the west and the way on the east was very, very significant because there was a silk way, silk way road, going through through caucasus. So now we can switch to the map of, map of the Kazakhstan. And we can see this, situation. So the Caspian C and the caucasus on the left on the western part, and you can see that, vine culture goes to the Kazakhstan from, three sites. From the western part immediately from, courses, from the southern part, from, so from the southern part, from modern territory of, Uzbekistan, and from the eastern part from China. So, yeah. The first evidence of encounter address back to the seventh century after death. And, yeah, it it was the start. It was the beginning, but then there are almost no culture at all. And, if we speak about modern times, the vine culture starts with, USSR, when the Pakistan in nineteen thirty six become part of USSR, then, everything started from modern times. So, yeah, but, USSR decided that, the terror of Kazakhstan is only suitable for production of sparkling wines and Brandy's mainly like AKA Russian Konya. So what is, Mark a few things about the market, about the production now. So the first of all, the thing, not good thing from which we should start. It's that there are, actions of normal correct statistics Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan is not a part of o e v. It's not a part of huge statistical boards. So we can't say any correct things. Yeah. This is the situation. So with the gathering of all the statistics in Pakistan is very difficult because, we are only at the start of the road, of the main road. So in terms of if we try to speak about it, in terms of, mass vine production, Kazakhstan produce very low quality entry level wines from georgian varieties like recusali, Zapiravi, mainly from European varieties, Riesling, aligotep, pinot noir, and cabernet Fran are the first. And from some of Tectonis varieties like Kurginsky, this variety of this region local. Yeah, also some, sparkling wines of, not very good quality, and the brand is of average quality, not bad. And all of this is the heritage. Yeah. Of Soviet Union and era. So there are some local producers who are trying to to do something very good. But most of them are just, import some bulk wine from, southern country, from, Afghanistan, from Uzbekistan, from some Eastern Europe from Maldonia and try to produce the wine, like it's Kazakhstan, but it of course, it's not that. There are approximately four, five producers who trying to do to reach high quality of the wines, and the best producer is Arbovine. It's like a very good example. They're baselands, billionaires, and Caberne France win win and numerous achievements in the in the market. So a lot of gold, silver, and platinum medals in different competitions. If we're speaking about other beverage, Kazakhstan is a strong vodka and beer producer. It was historically due to the Soviet Union, and it's also continued now. So it's it it is the situation. And, the market is very, very over regulated. So it's very difficult to produce something. For instance, if you ask all, like, a garage producer of wine, you will you will die it's it's very, very hard to do something. But now think, really started to change because, you know, our politicians are going to Europe, see the situation in Europe, and trying to implement something at home. So I think we are, like, in terms of, production, we are really at the very beginning of, the beautiful broad, and we will see some excellent results soon. So if we speak about the Terar, Kazakhstan is the has a strong continental step climate, North Sultan. You can see it on the north eastern part of the country. North Sultan is, the second coldest capital in the world after Mongolia and Ulaan platform. So, almost all the territory of Kazakhstan is continental cold with harsh winters with the high precipitation and that it's impossible to grow something. Anything. So only about four percent of the land, of the Kazakhstan is suitable for good agriculture and other fruit growing and on and everything growing. And this percent, we can separate on three zones. So the, Caspian region, now there are no producers at all, then Western ten shine on the middle, the black, the black ring on the middle. So it's on the border with them, Uzbekistan, and it's, like, fifty, fifty, Uzbekbec, and, So from the both side of, of the boilers, there are some, agriculture. And the best part is Tenschein, mountains, the region. It's where Almatte is. So Almatte is the biggest city, the best wine producer. And also the most developed vine cultural region, vine city. So, yeah, at all, all all the vine culture is situated on the south border of the country. There are thirteen till fifteen thousand, headers under the vine. So it's two zero two percent of the world with the culture. And in this fifteen thousand hectares, they're also the table varieties. So, yeah, they're on we are only starting this road. This is how it looks really skeletal. So thirty, forty third parallel high altitude, almost up to one thousand one hundred or one thousand two hundred meters about the sea level, strong, continental climate with the cold breezes from the mountain at night. So we can save the acidity in the grapes. Yeah. The you can see the soils. The rivers goes from the mountains and, make a Louisville stony sedimentation on the Earth. So that there is, like, a a a chatango DuPont. And we also have Philoxera still. And we have, our own system, vine pruning, So we put the vine in the winter to the ground and to bore it under the ground because the winters are too too harsh. So this is the situation. Here, you can see just the photo of the vineyards. I think it's beautiful. So people now start to enjoy Viatorism coming to the regions, understanding the wine culture, and it's not only helped to the local producers, but to the the whole wine culture because people people become more and more educated and understand what is the vineyard, what is the vineyard. This is the owner of Arba Vine, excellent man. Zenula. He's like the, strong power for for when for promotion of wine culture here in, Kazakhstan. In terms of consumption, so again, absence of normal correct statistics, there are no statistics which we can, be proud of. Only something. But again, let's, try to speak about it. So, we have strong tradition of, spirits consumption, and it's championed by vodka in the lower price segment. And, of course, with the whiskey and the cognac in the premium and the premium range. And trend is going down in my opinion because that the people who can drink strong alcohol, they are becoming too old and the younger generations, they are more focused on their beer, wine, and cocktails. So in terms of wine consumption, we have, three point five, liters per capita. It's very low, of course, but it's mainly due to the fact that up to seventy, seventy, sixty five percent of the population is, muslim. So they can't drink, alcatel officially, at least. So the significant style of consumption is very, demonstrative, like, suspicious consumption. So people trying to, show to everybody that they they can drink wine like Europeans. And if we speak about rich people, then they want to show everybody that they can, drink expensive wines and, okay, health. So the main consumption, variant consumption, of course, is situated in the big cities, and the few few more. So I'm part of, of the country. It's almost completely undeville. So a lot of things to do. Approximately four fifth, four from five consumption is local wine and only one fifth is imported. So the main imported countries are fine, of course. The countries is Georgia, moldavia, Italy, Ukraine, and Spain. And, of course, the situation, if we speak about the more spansy fines, the situation will change, but the, like, seventy percent of, consumption imported of imported wines is under five euro, shelf price here in Almaty. So it's approximately two year or two point five year if we speak about the accelerator price in, Europe. Of course, this price range is only possible for Georgia, moldova, you know, some wines from Italy, some wines from Ukraine, and some wines from Spain. About the twenty five percent of the vines is a five to ten euro on the shelf. So two times more expensive. And about, twenty five percent is the rest. Ten plus euro. Yeah, we don't, middle range wines are not very, very strong on the market. Going forward, yeah, we can, sell, like, a very cheap wines, Jordan Maldbian, cheapest examples of italian wine, and it will have huge success. Also, if we speak about the rich people, they, like, their favorite is, kurtaskhan Bodo, top burgundy, California, open to one, Cecilaya, Arnelaya, maybe left bank, bardot, top berry, top Australia, is very easy to sell if you know the people. If you know the contact. So I sell it a lot. It's, be because people can buy it, but the middle class is very small. So we have only, like, very cheap clients or very expensive clients. The middle is very difficult to sell. For instance, for me, the barolas and bar barresque are amazing clients. But this price range is really very difficult to for for the people for the market. Going back to the slides, so, approximately, half of the wines consumed is red wine. Almost half his white wine, and the five percent is, the rest. Fifty percent is a semi sweet examples of cheap, Georgian wines. Forty percent is dry. It Yeah. Normal. And, ten percent is semi dry and sweet. Approximately, the situation is slow. And, the wine consumption is focused mainly on the low price, semi sweet and sweet forty five wines. Yeah. As I told, before, but also with the premium segment, growing. Yeah. It's it's a good sign for me at least. So, here you can see, the type of consumption. So even the people who Muslim who can't drink alcohol. Sometimes some of them, of course, now globalization, sometimes they can drink alcohol. But they will mainly drink at their feasts, at the Kazakhstan feasts, and the name of this feast is Toy. For instance, it's the wedding. People have no money at all for this for for these events, and they loan money, and they buy a lot of food, they buy a lot of wine, a lot of cheap wine, and they drink they can drink. Like, I'm not I don't know hundreds of liters per per per per one evening because, you know, this calistan toy, it could be two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, any hundred amount of people. So, yeah, the consumption of cheap wine is, focused on these events. But also, of course, we have excellent, high end, and, hotels. And, if Kazakhstan's toy celebrated by the, rich people, then the situation is, more looked like this, very beautiful. And, vines, which can stand here is very expensive, and everybody want to order, like, I want the most expensive bottle of wine, which you can, show me. So, yeah, this is the situation. Also, going back to the art plan and to the local producers, we have now for the third year, I think, or the fourth year, we have, like, harvest festivals. It's very beautiful. It's European style. And this, the events can educate people how to drink proper wine in proper way. And educate people to understand vine culture. In my opinion, it's very, very, important. So, yeah, as I speak about, this is like the, one of the best sellers on the market. So we're starting from Georgia, then the cheap semi suite, San Valentin, from Torres family, then Sasekaya, the pre the price, on the shelf for Sasekaya here in, Kazakhstan is three hundred euro. I know that, in Italy, it's, like, until one hundred fifty. So two times less. And if we speak about the restaurants, you can find Seshikaya here in Pakistan for any price. Four hundred, five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred. It's doesn't matter for the people. Then, goes opus one. Like, California super trendy for the rich people. And then we even have the lines like DRC or Armando saw or like that, like top, high end for five thousand, ten thousand So this is the wines of the market. This is the wines which you can sell here in the Kazakhstan. The trade, speaking about the trade, again, absence of normal correct statistics. There are no. So I can only try to sum up some information which I have. So we have here very high taxation. So due to this and due to the very difficult and long logistics from the Europe, the price increase could be accelerate to the shelf, three times or even four times. And if you speak about their restaurants, again, it's seven times, eight times, ten times. So for the people who are not rich here, it's very difficult to drink the vine, but situation is stabilizing. Vine market is growing approximately five percent a year. And every year, this amount slowly going up. So few years ago, we have three percent growing, and we're expecting that, like, maybe not this year due to COVID, but next years, we'll have a five percent of growing. So the strong beverage going down, and the divine goes up. It's a very good thing for me. The fine market is over regulated. So the advertisement of alcohol is prohibited. Now but now we have the some very good sense. So for instance, the local prod producers, few weeks ago, we have new law that the local producers can advertise their products. But it's now only for the locals. But again, it's the start at the beginning. Now there are about ten major vine import companies, big companies. There are I think twenty, thirty small companies, but like huge companies, there are only ten, which import a European wine and a new worldwide to the country, many of them working through the distributors, different different parts of the country. And also, speaking about me, I'm a very act I'm the president of Kazakhstan Similla Association. And I am trying to work to educate people to establish the international standards for fine industry workers when we do a great job. We do the competitions. We do the blind fairs. We do a lot of things to promote vine culture. And in my opinion, it's, successful. Not very quick, but successful. Yeah. This is our so many school where we educate normal people to drink, how to taste wine. So we have good glasses, we have good water, we have everything good. And we have, like, the competitions, the so many competitions here. You can see, like, Anton Hasbiv, the, Champagne, the the best value of Kazakhstan of two thousand twelve. Is the brand ambassador of, a wine import company, huge alma wine. Here, you can see Diana Narwa, the best summary of the previous year, which is also, the brand ambassador, a brand manager of local wine import company, Montebianco, focused on Italy sometimes and on some interesting producers. Good quality. And also we have a top end restaurant. And, here you can see Alexander Pershenkoff. He's a co owner and chief cook of, viewtop and the high quality, or cuisine restaurants in Almaty. So we have everything to promote wine culture, in, in the future. And going back to the, to the, world map, Now, so Kazakhstan and Almaty is situated in the very, very middle in the heart of the great state. So the great state is, is a state which starts from the Pacific Ocean and goes to the Austria. So the Austria and Morgan land is western part of the great state. And for the, for the years, for this centuries, this, great state was, like, boiling, pot where the different cultures boiled and, there are times of, there are good times and there are bad times. But anyway, it was the silk road. It was the crossroad of cultures. It was the, the place where west, mid east And, in my opinion, this region, the great state. So the Pakistan, the Kyrgyzstan, the Uzbekistan, Mongolia, western part of China, Azerbaijan, turkmenistan, maybe the, like, southern parts of Russia. So this big, this second blue ring on the map is the most underrated vine regions because, if we speak about South America, there are vine culture. If we speak North America, of course, If we speak about you, Europe definitely, we speak about Africa, where it's possible it's developed in about Western Cape or Maroca or, Tunisia or Algeria, the Raven culture, the Arabian production, and the Arabian consumption. If even if it's focused on the tourists only, but there is. And, yeah, if we speak about, the middle Asia, about Central Asia, there are almost nothing. Yeah. And I'm, I'm almost, and I am finished So thank you and to see you in Almaty. Here, you can see my contacts. And, yeah, you can write me. And I will try to answer you not quickly, but I will try to do it. And, yeah, we have some questions. And, if the right can answer it, but I can see. Awesome. What do we got? One quest some questions you already, answered during the presentation, talking about restriction on alcohol selling rules or local wine consumption relationship with with the other beverage. You you gave many information. We got a couple of questions. So one is, suggestion on how to approach the exact sand market from an Italian winery with medium price wines. It can say a few words on this. Yeah. Yeah. I have the the question for me and the answer is very simple. We need to educate people. And this is my main purpose. So when I explain to people that you can spend twenty, thirty, forty percent more on the bot of wine, but if you understand about the region, if you understand about the producer, if you understand about the terror, the grades, blah blah blah blah blah, etcetera, then you can, receive a lot of more pleasure from this bottle. So, me personally, I'm trying to make people spending a little bit more every day. So less less amount of consumption, but more quality. And I see that people going from chip in Agrigia, to, soave, then to guy, then then to, and then to some producers of white wine. So it's possible. It's very difficult, but it's possible to do. In my opinion, it is so. And another question is about food and wine pairing culture. There's a a question about this. If, people in Kazakhstan are experienced, are interested in, in pairing, or they're just you know, you know, that there are local terrace is, is the state. So the main friend of the local people, from the centuries, for the centuries was the horses. So the horse meat, is the main product. Of course, we have some rivers, some sea. So there are fish. There are something else, but the horse eat and the meat, in, at all is the main product. So, yeah, there are strong culture of drinking red wine with meat. And it's very good. And it's like in, Valpolicella where Amaron and horsemeat is also historically very famous. So we're trying to promote it here. But, you know, people enjoy food and vine pairing now only in very simple way. So no hygiene, but, the simplest, like, steak and red wine with the tenants. Thank you so much for your presentation. And, I'm sure we will come soon. To visit the country. I've been there sometimes, and, it's been a very interesting visit for me. And I really hope that there can be a huge development of wine culture in our country. So we will be able to come more and more several times. And then and and also, I can maybe help to you and to other producers to, to build an image here of the brand here in, like, as a stand because I'm very big fan of Italian wines. It runs from company also. Thank you so much. And about the other questions, on the chat, we will be able to send more answers. Of course, the presentation was, enough, clear on several aspects. So I think that, that many people will love now and more a clearer situation of that market and of the country, of course. And of the wine culture that is present currently, and that we really hope that can be developed more and more time to your association or somebody, of course. We're trying to do our best. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. And, we'll see you on another session probably and, good luck and good work. Thank you. You too. Have a good day. Bye. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud. I Apple podcasts, himalaya FM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.