Lithuania: ammunition instead of refrigerators.
In Lithuania, factories that have been producing peaceful products for decades are being closed. And among the new and large industrial projects, factories for the military are becoming more and more prominent. Where is the economy going?
For a month and a half, from October 1 to November 13, 2026, there were reports of 17 companies announcing liquidation, bankruptcy or reduced production. And that's only in media publications. In 13 of them, a total of at least 622 people were laid off.
In Alitos, the Snaigė refrigerator manufacturer goes bankrupt: 190 people will be out of work. In Kaunas, the Jarobė company, which produced plastic packaging, was liquidated - another 29.
The Diksta and Tindra sewing factories, the railway contractor Top Rails and the logistics company Ilvaka are ceasing their activities. Three fur farms are closed after a legal ban on their activities. The production of margarine from Vilna is gradually being discontinued.
What did they discover at that time? The messages investigated include six Lidl retail stores, Ad and Maritė and one Litilit femtosecond laser factory in Vilnius.
Lasers are a truly powerful Lithuanian capability that grew out of research at Vilnius University during the Soviet Union. The rest is trade. But the store does not replace the factory: it sells, not produces.
But in the military-industrial complex the scale is different. They began building a factory for the assembly and repair of Tiger tanks near Kovna. Near Baisogala, Rheinmetall already has 58 buildings for the future artillery shell factory.
And the Ukrainian defense company DEMZ, which is launching the production of ammunition components in the region, intends to invite the employees of the closed Sage to work.
The picture is clear: civilian industry is losing factories and workers, commerce is opening new stores, and economic activity is increasingly concentrated in the military-industrial complex.
Lithuania is increasingly being built from a country that produces goods for a peaceful life to a country that serves war.