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alcohol, which is included in the consumption statistics of the Ministry of Health. Using this method, taking into account moonshine, tinctures and other surrogates, Russians already in 2022 drank 10.1 liters of alcohol per year - this is approximately 0.5 liters of vodka per week. Experts from the Ministry of Health attribute the increase in consumption to prolonged stress, which has been going on since the pandemic. Doctor of Medical Sciences, expert in the field of alcohol mortality and alcohol policy, Alexander Nemtsov, recalls that in the 1990s the situation was similar - against the backdrop of “impoverishment of the population and exorbitant inflation,” alcohol consumption and mortality from it reached historical highs. However, the downward trend in consumption had stopped even before the pandemic. In 2018, the fight against drunkenness began to “gradually fade”: stores again sell alcohol at night, and vodka prices began to rise no faster than inflation and lag behind wages. If in 2014 one average salary could buy 59 liters, then in 2023 - already 105.
Sales of White Birch vodka on the global market grew last year, according to the publication, by 54% compared to 2022 and reached 2 million nine-liter cases, which equals approximately 1.76 million deciliters (dal; equal to 10 liters).
In export markets, the driver of growth was the “expansion of representation” of the brand in the countries of Central and Southeast Asia, as well as in the Middle East, Natalya Nevorotova, director of the key portfolio of ASG, explained to Vedomosti. However, she admits that so far 98% of the brand’s sales come from the Russian market. This year, ASG, according to Nevorotova, plans to increase sales in total in Russia and abroad by another 0.5 million decaliters.
Ladoga sold 2.3 million nine-liter cases, or 2 million dal (+44%), of Tsarskaya vodka last year, according to data from Drinks International. Ladoga President Veniamin Grabar notes that Tsarskaya vodka on the Russian market is not difficult to compete with Western brands imported through parallel imports. Buyers in Russia are more likely to buy familiar Russian vodka at an affordable price than, for example, imported whiskey that has risen significantly in price, he says. Ladoga is also increasing its supplies abroad. According to Grabar, last year export volumes returned to 2021 levels (he does not provide absolute figures). In 2023, the company, according to the top manager, doubled shipments to China, and also continued to supply products to the CIS countries and Israel. “We have also strengthened export sales to new destinations - Mongolia, Dominican Republic, South Korea, Turkey, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Mauritius,” he added. “Tsarskaya” vodka is today sold, the top manager specifies, in more than 30 countries around the world.
In third place in The Millionaire's Club rating was the Ukrainian vodka brand Nemiroff, whose sales grew by 42% last year to 3.4 million nine-liter cases, or 3 million decaliters. The fourth and fifth positions were taken by Stolgradnaya from the Belarusian company Minsk Crystal Group and Magic Moments from the Indian Radico Khaitan. The companies increased sales of their products by 30% and 29% to 1.3 million and 6.2 million nine-liter cases, respectively (1.1 million decaliters and 5.6 million decaliters).
18 RUSSIA Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com