From January 1, alcohol will rise in price: the record-breaking product for price increases has been named

“The problem is not the high cost of alcohol, but the low salaries of buyers”

From January 1, 2023, the price of alcohol will rise in Russia. The Ministry of Finance decided to index the minimum retail prices (MRP) for alcohol. Vodka, cognac, brandy will rise in price. Sparkling wine will grow most significantly in price: plus 70 rubles to the current minimum wage of 169 rubles. The growth in value is under the sign of the fight against counterfeit and illegal alcoholic products. The authorities are convinced that it is the MRC that can protect citizens from dangerous falsification. But is it?

Discussions on the topic “is there any benefit from the MRP” are ongoing. Today the situation is as follows: in Russia there is a minimum retail price for vodka, sparkling wines, cognac and brandy. The introduction of a minimum price is an ambiguous measure, but it is aimed precisely at combating counterfeit goods.

If we talk about raising the minimum prices in the coming year, then vodka will rise in price by 20 rubles per bottle of 0.5 liters. Today, the cheapest “white” in legal retail costs 261 rubles, and it will be 281. At the same time, about 140 rubles (more than 60%) in this cost are taxes that the state removes from the manufacturer even before he produced this bottle: excise and VAT (which will also increase from January next year). The price of alcohol, the cost of a bottle, a label, a cork will also increase. The cost of brandy will increase from 348 to 375 rubles, cognac – from 480 to 517 rubles.

Well, sparkling wine will become a kind of leader drink, which will rise in price more than others. Its minimum cost will increase by 70 rubles from January 1 – from 169 to 239 rubles per 0.75 liter. But there is an explanation for this. For some reason, for many years the state did not raise the cost of the minimum wage. They installed it in 2005. Since then, it has been indexed only once for 4 rubles. It turns out that the current indexation will restore the status quo.

The increase in the minimum cost will not affect the marginalized segments of the population, said a member of the Guild of Marketers, an expert in the marketing of strong alcohol Ruslan Bragin. “They already drink moonshine and all sorts of substitutes for normal alcohol. They don’t care what to drink, as long as it’s there. A small proportion of low-paid segments of the population, perhaps, will take “left” drinks, which are cheaper,” he noted.

Vadim Drobiz, director of the Center for Research on Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets, agrees with this opinion. According to him, the increase in the minimum retail price will not have any negative impact either on consumers or on the alcohol business. But only the state will win.

“Every year in Russia a new minimum wage is set for alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, alcohol is the same product as any other. In a legal sense, it is registered as a food product. In 2022, food inflation was 15-16%. At the same time, average prices for the same vodka increased by 6%, for still and sparkling wines by 12%. It turns out that the level of growth in prices for legal alcohol lags behind the level of food inflation, ”says the interlocutor of MK.

However, it is clear that any, even a slight increase in prices is unpleasant for consumers. But the expert cited interesting data: according to him, about 10 years ago, the population of Russia was divided into two social groups. One, and this is approximately 80-85 million adult citizens, purchases legal products in legal stores, which are produced by legal factories. The second group, about 20 million citizens with a very low standard of living, with salaries of up to 20 thousand rubles a month, who never buy legal alcohol, but take drinks from illegal outlets at a price two times lower than legal ones.

“These products and these people do not intersect in the legal market,” continues Drobiz. – Moreover, consumers with low incomes buy all counterfeit products absolutely consciously. Nobody deceives them. Everyone who orders alcohol on the Internet or buys it at an illegal point knows what kind of product it is. These consumers should not be made victims of business. They are victims of the state or commercial companies, in the sense that they have low salaries,” the expert believes.

Meanwhile, after the growth of the minimum retail prices, drinks of other price categories will also rise in price. But, you must admit: even if a bottle of cognac for a thousand rubles rises in price by 50 rubles, this will not be a problem for those who can afford such a drink.