Russians are switching to the consumption of noble alcoholic beverages – wine and champagne. Izvestia got acquainted with the official statistics of Rosalkogolregulirovanie (RAR) for the most popular categories of alcohol. It follows from it that at the end of the three quarters of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, sales of champagne increased by 5%, to 10.8 million decaliters, wine – by 4%, to 41.2 million decaliters. The same trend was recorded in the beer category: its sales increased by 5%, to 514.9 million decaliters.
Vodka sales did not change and amounted to 54.3 million decaliters, while demand for cognac fell by 1% to 8.3 million decaliters. Thus, in general, sales of alcoholic beverages by the results of three quarters did not change in relation to the same period last year and amounted to 158 million decaliters.
Shifting the focus from strong to weak alcohol is one of the points of state policy in the field of reducing excessive consumption of alcohol, President of the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers Leonid Popovich told Izvestia. The new sales trend confirms that efforts have begun to pay off.
The head of the Association of Retail Market Experts, Andrey Karpov, told Izvestia that this year there was indeed a trend towards an increase in wine consumption. He suggests that people left without overseas vacations have lost the opportunity to bring home their favorite wines. Therefore, they compensate for this need at home. The expert is confident that this trend will continue next year: Russians will increase their wine consumption.
According to Rosalkogolregulirovanie, sales of alcoholic beverages with a strength above 25 degrees (for example, tinctures) also increased by 15%, up to 5.6 million decaliters, alcoholic beverages stronger than 9 degrees (rum, whiskey, gin) – by 11% , up to 5.8 million decaliters.
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Degree of quality: Russians are switching to wine and champagne