International Water Exhibition in Moscow

On February 19th, the All-Russian Exhibition Centre in the north of Moscow hosted the opening of the first international exhibition, Russia's Live Water-2003. This exhibition also includes Russian kvass festival-2003 and Russian juice-2003 shows.

About 80 Russian and foreign companies from Moscow, Tyumen, Bashkortostan, Yessentuki, Kaliningrad, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden and other places have taken part in the exhibition. Stands display a wide range of soft drinks from fruit juices, sweet fizzy drinks and kvass to usual mineral water of different springs as well as powder concentrates and colouring matter and production equipment.

At a press conference devoted to the opening of the exhibition organisers pointed to the fact that every year Russians were consuming an increased amount of juice and mineral water, which, obviously, resulted in an annual 15-25 percent rise in their production. Accordingly, kvass production in Russia comes fourth after such drink-market giants as Pepsi and Coca-Cola. President of the Union of Soft Drinks Producers, Anatoli Belichenko, expressed hope that it was due to Russians' intention to live a healthy life. Moreover, conference participants noted significant improvement in the quality of Russian drinks. For example, our Baikal concentrate has already gained international recognition. Moreover, this exhibition will help Russian producers show new achievements to their foreign colleagues.

Competitions for the best soft drink-2003, best equipment and best stand will also be held as part of the exhibition. The exhibition will last till February 23rd.