The money will go to modernize the production lines in order to improve the quality of product and to enable production of other beers. The joint venture will begin production of Baltika Classic No. 3 and Baltika Strong No. 9 before the end of the year, Shevchenko said.

The number of Baltic brands made at the brewery may be expanded, and other beer brands belonging to BBH may be added, Interfax reported.

"We are also planning to introduce a number of innovative products on the Uzbek market, which will make it possible to raise the quality of product in the retail network," he said.

Sarbast Plus - with technical support from Carlsberg - has launched DraughtMaster, a new draft beer system for hotel-restaurant-cafe sales in Uzbekistan. Over 1,000 such systems will be installed at retail establishments through Uzbekistan before the end of the year.

BBH has already invested roughly 60 million euro in the Uzbek brewery.

Sarbast Plus signed a licensing agreement with Baltika Breweries in May 2008. The company is planning to produce about 15 million liters of beer per year in Uzbekistan under the license.

The agreement gives Sarbast Plus exclusive right to Baltika’s trademarks, know-how and technology in addition to the production, sale and promotion of Baltika’s brands in Uzbekistan.

BBH and Sarbast Plus set up the Sarbast Plus joint venture in 2006. BBH owns 75.1% of the venture and the Uzbek company owns the other 24.9%.

The joint venture opened a US$54.9 million brewery in Tashkent with capacity to produce 100 million liters of beer per year in July 2007. The venture now only makes beer under the local premium Sarbast brand, which is sold on the domestic market. Per capita beer consumption in the country of 27 million is about 10 liters per year, and the beer market has been growing steadily for the past several years.

Beer production in Uzbekistan grew 5.3% to 104.13 million liters in 2007, according to official statistics. Despite a prohibitive 70% excise on imported beer, the highest in the CIS, sales of imported beer are growing in Uzbekistan.