Vilniaus Degtine - Notification on material event

Vilniaus Degtinė to buy 80 per cent more grain from Lithuanian farmers

Obeliai Distillery, the only producer of Lithuanian alcohol owned by Vilniaus
Degtinė that stands in cooperation with more than 250 farms in Lithuania, in
2016 bought over 20,000 tons of Lithuanian grain and has plans to increase its
purchase volumes by another 80 per cent to 36,000 tons this year. 

Working with 250 Lithuanian farms

According to Dovilė Tamoševičienė, CEO of Vilniaus Degtinė, the production of
the plant is Lithuanian throughout, from the land to the grain that grows on
it, and to the manufacturing process itself. The company works with more than
250 domestic farmers, their farms creating hundreds of direct and indirect jobs
in the regions. 

“Last year, our own Obeliai Distillery bought in more than 20,000 tons of
Lithuanian grain. This year, the volume of grain purchases is due to increase
by 80 per cent to 36,000 tons. We use the alcohol distilled from the grain to
produce our drinks, and roughly 50 per cent of it is exported to Poland,
Latvia, and Estonia,” noted Dovilė Tamoševičienė. 

“Operational since 1907, the distillery owned by our company is one of the kind
in Lithuania. On the level of the international concern Marie Brizard Wine &
Spirits, it is a unique regional distillation unit, producing material for
products – spirits – of exclusively Lithuanian origin,” D. Tamoševičienė
highlighted. 

Turning grain into cash and fertiliser

She stressed that thanks to the 10 million euro investment project that has
been carried out at Obeliai Distillery, the company now stands out not only as
one of the oldest distilleries in the Baltics, but also as a plant that buys
grain from local farmers and uses renewable energy sources, which produce waste
that farmers use as fertiliser. 

Five years ago, Obeliai Distillery started making biogas from draff and is now
capable of producing its own heat and electricity. The modernisation of the
distillery benefits the farmers it cooperates with, since the manufacturing
process turns the rye and wheat into alcohol and later into gas, and also
produces draff, a by-product which can be used as a high-value fertiliser. 


         General Manager
         Dovilė Tomaševičienė
         8 5 233 0819