Mikalai Martynau, the owner of the Marko footwear holding, complained about sanctions in an interview with SB.by.
“The most difficult period is now, after the sanctions were imposed. The world has closed in”, the publication quotes him as saying.
According to the article, after sanctions were imposed on the Belarusian authorities over the violent suppression of protests following the 2020 election in Belarus and for complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Marko holding lost the Baltic market.
It is also noted that “Russia has ‘shrunk’ because its own production has started developing there”. The company is also facing problems paying for equipment from China and Turkey. Sheepskin from Australia arrived in Riga but was not allowed through. All production materials are now “delivered slowly, expensively, and unreliably”.
The publication says that online sales are helping to save the holding. In 2026, the company expects to approach sales of 100,000 pairs on Ozon, and it has also started shipping products through Wildberries.
