The Šumadija brandy festival, the third in a row, will be organized on Saturday, November 26 in Kragujevac, the organizers announced today.There will be more than 40 exhibitors in the Exclusive event center, including some of the most famous distilleries from Serbia.
The event will be open to visitors from 1pm to 10pm, and the ticket price is 500 dinars.
Šumadija rakija festival was created with the aim of better positioning of distilleries through the promotion, distribution and sale of products as well as the development and promotion of rakija tourist tours, it was said at a press conference at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Representatives of the organizers of the festival, the City Tourist Organization of Kragujevac and the Association of Brandy Producers “Šumadijska rakija”, pointed out that brandy producers are the guardians of tradition and all the best that it means.
“Such manifestations are important for the further branding of our producers and distilleries, they support the further growth of the export of strong alcoholic beverages and the growth of the gross domestic product,” said the director of PKS RPK Kragujevac Predrag Lučić.
He stated that the export of strong alcoholic beverages from the region of Šumadija and Pomoravlje for nine months of this year was 775,000 euros, which is a growth of 63.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
“It is clear that the export of strong alcoholic beverages from this region will exceed one million euros for the whole year,” he said.
The president of the “Šumadija rakija” association of brandy producers, Goran Mijailović, said that the Šumadija brandy festival is the only one of its kind in Serbia.
He pointed out that every year the quality of brandy produced in Serbia is getting better, as shown by the evaluations of samples taken from stores.
The representative of the Tourism Organization of Kragujevac, Emina Dramlić, said that the Šumadija brandy festival is one of the forms of gastro-tourism and supports rural tourism.
“This is an opportunity to bring our traditions and culture closer to tourists, especially foreign ones,” she pointed out.
The secretary of the Association for Plant Production and Food Industry PKS Aleksandar Bogunović said that in 2016 the procedure of the register of producers of strong alcoholic beverages was simplified and that now there are 930 of them.
“Registration of brandy producers means that they are under supervision and that their products are safe,” he said, adding that legal producers cannot deal with the large gray market.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia, around 26.1 million liters of brandy were produced last year.
In addition to registered producers of strong alcoholic beverages, there is a large number of individual producers, that is, citizens who produce brandy for their own needs. The estimate is, yes with the quantity
brandy for own needs in households, the total amount of brandy produced annually is about 50 million liters.
For nine months of this year, the export of fruit brandies increased by about 30 percent compared to the same period last year and reached a value of over 10 million euros, while the export in 2021 was 46 percent higher than the previous year.
By value, the most brandy is exported to Croatia, Germany, Montenegro, the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the highest growth in the value of exports in 2022 was recorded on the Swiss market.
According to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics, it is estimated that the production of plums will be 15 percent higher this year compared to last year, which will have a positive effect on the further growth of the production and export of fruit brandy, because about 70 percent of plums are processed into brandy.