Add a degree to cocktails – Kommersant FM

Alcohol producers can switch from low-alcohol drinks to strong ones; at least, the Kaluga distillery Kristall announced that it will release new cocktails based on gin with a strength of 20 degrees. The company explained this decision by a fourfold increase in excise taxes, which will occur in May 2024. As a result, low-alcohol products will become more expensive, prices in the store may triple, Kristall said. Now a strong cocktail with a volume of 250 ml will cost 199 rubles, and a low-alcohol cocktail will cost 270 rubles. That is, “in degrees” it turns out more profitable.

Nevertheless, the head of the Center for the Development of National Alcohol Policy, Pavel Shapkin, doubts that such products will be in demand: “Why do you need to buy something from a bank? It’s impossible to drink 20% gin. Negroni is still somehow understandable.

That is, formally the excise tax rate will be lower on stronger products, but nevertheless, consumer properties are beginning to come to the fore.

You cannot drink undiluted gin. Ready-made cocktails enjoy such low popularity that it is even impossible to calculate what fraction of a percent—a hundredth or a thousandth—are occupied by such drinks, that is, this is not a market at all. It is simply unrealistic to rely on this separately to replace these products.

At the same time, this is a global trend, that is, the whole world is moving to the category of ready-made cocktails; in the USA they are already beginning to displace beer. In our country they are simply nullified by excise taxes. The only place where demand can flow is beer drinks through liqueurs under the guise of mojitos or pina coladas.”

Will other manufacturers follow Kristall’s path? Director of the Club of Alcohol Market Professionals Maxim Chernigovsky suggests that given the increase in excise taxes, such actions are inevitable: “In my opinion, this is an illogical and completely incomprehensible situation that will lead to an increase in poisonings and deaths from the consumption of illegal alcohol. And above all, this means an increase in the level of alcoholism, an increase in the consumption of strong drinks, whether legal or not.”

Rosalkogoltabakcontrol reports that in 2023, alcohol consumption in the country increased, but the alcohol level decreased.

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Dennis Bespalov