Soft drinks producers oppose sugar tax

When the ruling coalition plans to introduce a sugar tax on sugary drinks, producers have drafted a resolution to oppose the initiative. As Gintė Levišauskaitė, Director of the association „Lietuvos dzēriai“ explains, such a tax is discriminatory and will negatively affect the competitiveness of companies.

„The Association „Lietuvos dzēriai“ and the soft drinks industry community are adopting a resolution to oppose this discriminatory sugar tax specifically on soft drinks. And we plan to share our resolution with all members of the Seimas“, – said G. Levišauskaitė on Monday, at the Beverage Industry Forum 2025.

Vidas Komparskas, marketing director at fruit juice and beverage producer „Eckes-Granini Baltic“, explained that such a tax will lead to inflation in the beverage category. It will also reduce the ability of beverage companies to raise staff salaries, he said.

„Tomorrow we will start preparing our response to this draft law, in which we will make it very clear that we are not in favour of it. Because it will have a huge negative impact on the soft drinks industry. It will prevent workers from being able to raise their wages, which is one of the objectives, because we want the purchasing power of the population to grow," commented Mr Komparskas.

„It will also encourage inflation in the soft drinks category“, – he said.

Laimonas, director of „Kauen Craft“, a soft drinks and alcoholic beverages factory in Kaunas, said that the new tariff would make producers uncompetitive and reduce the number of people buying the drinks. As a result, he said, companies in the sector will have to lay off up to 20% of their workforce.

„We will resist in every possible way, together with our competitors and partners in the sector. It is discriminatory, it cuts jobs in our companies and it would undermine our competitiveness. Because if volumes fall, costs rise – we are not competitive. We have problems as a small market, it's even worse here," said Mr Blažinskas.

„We will have to cut jobs by 10–20%“, – he argued.

According to Edmundas Likša, founder and CEO of alternative drinks supplier „Thirst Killers“, taxing sugary drinks will force cafes and restaurants to raise their prices, making it harder for the sector to compete.

„I want to send out a message that prices in restaurants will go up dramatically,“ he said.

M. Dubnikov: Sugar and corporate tax to make soft drinks 27% more expensive

According to economist Marius Dubnikov, the burden of both sugar and corporate tax on soft drink producers will mean that they will have to make their products a quarter more expensive. And this price rise, he said, will be felt most by those on the lowest incomes.

„In real terms, the price of production should rise by 26.7%, including both sugar and profit tax“, Dubnikov said at the forum.

„Be that as it may, such products are food. And this will make food more expensive for poor people“, – he said.

In addition, according to the economist, the tax would only make a minimal contribution to defence funding.

„The defence requirement for the coming years is €12–14 billion. Let's face it, 25 million euros is not a factor,– said the economist.

As ELTA reported earlier, the ruling coalition agrees in principle to introduce a sugar tax on sugary drinks.

The Ministry of Finance proposes that the sugar tax be levied at two rates per 100 litres of beverage produced. The first rate of €7.4 would apply if the sugar content of 100 millilitres of drink does not exceed 8 grams.

At the same time, if there are more than 8 grams of sugar per 100 mml of beverage, a levy of €21 would apply. This rate would also apply to all energy drinks.

It is estimated that this tax could raise €25 million.