“The growth of legal retail sales is the result of a whitewashing of the market, a decrease in the share of illegal products and the consumer’s refusal to buy them,” Rosalkogolregulirovanie believes.
At the same time, as previously reported in the department, alcohol production over the past year increased by 9.8%, from 181.8 to 199.5 million decalitres. Thus, the participation of imported alcohol in the market decreased from 14.6% to 9.5%.
Alcohol with a graduation higher than 9% was sold last year by 6.8% more (113.15 million decalitres). Vodka sales increased by 5.9% to 76.2 million decalitres, cognac sales – by 5.3% to 12.7 million decalitres. Sales of alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of more than 25% grew the most among strong alcoholic beverages: they increased by 28.8%, to 11.6 million decalitres.
This category includes whiskey, gin, calvados, with import problems in 2022 due to sanctions. Since the domestic production of such drinks increased by 41.8%, the growth in sales was probably due to Russian products. Sales in the “other spirits” category (which includes, for example, rum and brandy) added 10.3% to 11.1 million decalitres.
Sales of low-alcohol products (various cocktails) in 2022 increased by 46%, to 16.1 million decalitres. Russians bought more than 20 million decaliters of sparkling wines, up 8.6% compared to the previous year. And sales of still wine increased by 0.8% to 53.4 million decalitres. Sales of liqueur wines increased last year more than 2.5 times, to 756,000 decalitres.
The director of the Research Center for Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets (CIFRRA), Vadim Drobiz, previously explained the growth of alcohol consumption, among other things, by a decrease in the number of vacationers traveling abroad, now they drink that volume within the country.
