InnoMatrix to conduct €108,885 study on neighbours' alcohol purchases in Latvia

Latvia's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (SPKC), the body responsible for public health data and statistics, has signed a contract with the company InnoMatrix for a study on the alcohol purchasing habits of Estonian and Lithuanian residents in Latvia. The work will cost €108,885. The findings are meant to help separate local alcohol consumption from cross-border shopping, which affects health statistics and policy planning.

What the study will examine

The official description stresses that the study will assess how residents of the two neighbouring countries buy alcohol while in Latvia, not how they drink. The data will be used to refine the methodology for calculating pure alcohol consumption, improve the quality of health statistics, and plan and carry out policy to limit alcohol use.

The rationale states that Latvia has one of the highest alcohol consumption levels in Europe. The alcohol industry, for its part, says part of registered consumption comes from foreign residents, mainly Estonians and Lithuanians, buying in Latvia because of price differences.

The contractor must develop a methodology and tools for studying these habits, as well as a method for calculating tourists' pure alcohol consumption. It must calculate how much pure alcohol Estonian and Lithuanian tourists buy in Latvia, prepare a report and an abstract, and present the results if needed. The work is planned over three years, with a deadline of 30 December 2029.

Tender and bids

Four companies submitted bids. PricewaterhouseCoopers offered €106,194 and PowerHouse Latvia €125,990. Berg Research's sum, after correction of arithmetic errors, was €137,010, but after being told about the errors it submitted a new financial offer and was excluded. InnoMatrix received the highest value-for-money score, 98 out of 100; PricewaterhouseCoopers scored 90 and PowerHouse Latvia 71.72.

Earlier dispute

In May, the Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB) barred the Ministry of Health from continuing the tender without changes, upholding a complaint by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The tender rules required bidders and their specialists not to have received funding from the alcohol industry since 4 May 1990. The IUB accepted the aim of preventing conflicts of interest as legitimate but found the time span disproportionate and struck down those requirements.

About the company

According to Firmas.lv, InnoMatrix was registered in 2009 and is owned by Līga Brasliņa. From 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026 its turnover was €216,691, down 59.7% on the previous year, and profit was €17,790, down 81.9%.