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Russians buying up alcohol at record pace
The first 10 months of 2024 have seen record sales of alcohol among Russian consumers, according to calculations made by the local alcohol regulator, with wine and vodka driving retail sales. Eugene Gerden reports.
In 2024, almost 2 billion litres of alcohol were sold in the Russian retail, which is the highest figure since 2017, according to calculations made by the local alcohol regulator Rosalkogoltobakkontrol (RATK). Vodka, as well as still and sparkling wines, are the top sellers.
According to the latest statistics of the Russian RBC Vino business paper cited by RATK, 1.84 billion litres of alcoholic drinks were sold at retail in Russia from January to October this year.
Vodka demonstrated record sales in 2024. In just 10 months 625 million litres of the spirit were sold, breaking the 2017 record high of 542 million litres.
Record sales were also observed for still and sparkling wines. Still wine sales for the first 10 months of 2024 amounted to 469m litres, 0.9% more than last year.
Sales of sparkling wines increase to 163m litres over the same period. This equates to a 10.9% year-on-year rise for the same period, and a 61% increase on the first 10 months of 2017.
In terms of output, according to data of RATK, 271m litres of still wine and 134.7m litres of sparkling wine were produced in Russia from January to October. According to the agency, these are the highest figures since 2017.
As for individual categories of alcohol, the biggest growth in sales was shown by alcoholic drinks (this includes tinctures, cordials, liqueurs, balms, etc.) and other strong alcohol (whiskey, rum, gin, calvados, etc.). Their sales since the beginning of 2024 amounted to 132m and 113m litres respectively, a 16.6% and 15.7% increase on 2023.
The biggest year-on-year decline was in sales of grape-containing drinks without ethyl alcohol and fruit alcoholic products – down by 34.3% and 20.1% respectively. In absolute figures, the biggest decline was observed in low-alcohol products. ales for this category from January to October 2024 amounted to 115m litres, down 19.8% year-on-year.
Declines were caused by the change in excise tax from 1 May 2024, quadrupling it to 141 rubles per litre of the drink, which made the production of low-alcohol cocktails economically unprofitable.
Russian analysts believe the ever deteriorating economic situation in Russia and ongoing military conflict in Ukraine are the main reasons of a sharp growth in sales of alcoholic drinks in Russia these days.
Alexey Kanevsky, head of the Economics Committee of Opora Rossii, one of Russia’s leading business associations, told the Russian Kommersant business paper that in troubled times the consumption of alcoholic drinks in Russia usually increases.
Kanevsky said: “”This is a psychological factor. In addition, for quite a long time now, attractive imported wine, including high-quality from France and Italy, has been sold here almost cheaper than at home. This is due to the fact that we managed to organise its parallel imports and transportation, and this wine has become very attractive in terms of price for the Russian consumer, who is accustomed to this type of still wine.”
Russian wine producers are also expanding production. However, imported wine still holds a majority share of sales in the market. According to analysts, as long as it is present on the Russian market, it will be consumed more, and this wine is still of better quality. The ratio is approximately 70/30 in favour of imported wine.
In 2023, import duties on wine from ‘unfriendly’ countries were raised from 12.5% to 20%. Local producers demanded their further growth up to 200%. Authorities support the indexation of rates, but at a slower pace.
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