Lithuania's top products under the spotlight

  • 2002-05-29
  • Timothy Jacobs
RIGA

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas rang in the Lithuanian Days festival, a four-day event designed to promote the country's business and culture in Latvia, at the Great Guild Hall in Riga's Old Town on May 22.

Along with a major trade fair at the Kipsala exhibition hall and numerous displays of Lithuanian history and culture, trade issues were discussed in meetings between Brazauskas and his Latvian counterpart Andris Berzins.

"Our countries successfully moved forward over the past decade," the prime minister said. "We did well, we cooperated, we exchanged experience, we competed fairly while implementing democratic and economic reforms and seeking membership to the European Union and NATO. We developed good relations with neighboring states and other countries in the region. Today it depends on us whether we'll be willing to help each other continue this march of success."

Accompanied by Latvia's Economy Minister Aigars Kalvitis, Brazauskas told the crowd on hand at the trade fair that this was the largest representation of Lithuanian companies in Latvia since both countries regained independence.

"We are neighbors, which is why our economic ties are so intensive," said Brazauskas, adding that Latvia is second to Germany as Lithuania's biggest trading partner.

Many of the Lithuanian representatives at the fair lamented the low turnout. But they believed that the Latvian market had the potential of being extremely lucrative for their companies.

The Maxima hypermarket chain and the supermarket chain T-Market, both run by the Lithuanian company Vilniaus Prekyba, have already successfully established themselves in Latvia by offering many of the same goods already available in Latvia at cheaper prices. And other businesses are lining up to do the same.

"Everything is cheaper in Lithuania," said Daiva Dombrauskene, who works for the Lithuanian women's clothing company Elva Women's Clothes. "Latvians often go to Lithuania to buy their clothes and shoes because they are much less expensive there."

Other companies represented at the fair offered some unusual products. Pletra is a company located in Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas that manufactures cosmetic silicone products, such as fake breasts for women who have had mastectomies, padding for women who want to increase their bra size, and shoe supports for people with deformed feet."We haven't broken into the Latvian market yet, but today we managed to schedule four meetings with potential clients for tomorrow," said Vidals Cechana-vicius. "I believe that our company offers some unique products and that we could be really successful here."

The Latvian and Lithuanian prime ministers discussed, among other things, the dumping of certain products on the marketplace. Products are imported in numbers large enough to saturate the market and put competitors out of business in one foul blow.

Latvian dairy producers are worried that their Lithuanian counterparts are flooding the markets, and the Lithuanian government is conducting dumping probes of Latvian matches and yeast.

Berzins told reporters after his meeting with Brazauskas that dishonest competition between the two countries should be abolished and that the business communities in both countries should not be afraid of dumping probes, because these were the only way to make sure competition remained fair.

Although there are no specific plans yet, Kalvitis hopes that a Latvian trade fair could be organized in Vilnius in the future.