The Russians began to drink even more: sales of strong alcohol jumped

People fill melancholy-sadness

Last year, the volume of retail sales and, accordingly, the consumption of strong alcohol in Russia grew by a very impressive 7.5%, up to 6.8 liters per person per year. There are several reasons, but the main one is in the plane of psychology, not marketing: in a crisis, people need a non-drug antidepressant. Let not quite safe for the liver and blood vessels, but painfully familiar and invariably accessible. First of all, this is domestic vodka.

For comparison: in the pandemic 2020, the consumption of strong drinks per capita increased by 3.3%, and in 2021 by 1.2%. As for sales of wine products, last year they decreased by 5.5%, to 6.2 liters per person. Beer Russians drank an average of 52.2 liters, that is, the level of consumption has not changed.

According to Aghvan Mikaelyan, a member of the board of directors of FinExpertiza, the company that conducted this research on the alcohol market, “it is noteworthy that the sales of alcoholic beverages over 25 degrees, that is, all kinds of rums, gins, liqueurs, are especially high.” “This happened against the backdrop of the departure of many foreign brands from Russia,” the expert notes. “Probably, some consumers could buy imported alcohol for the future.”

It is also important that in 2022 the price of wine has risen by 28%, and vodka and cognac – by 12%. Plus, the process of “whitewashing” the alcohol market continued, counterfeit goods on it became noticeably smaller. Accordingly, last year’s growth in consumption can in no way be connected with the factor of low-quality, but cheap vodka or something like that.

“It’s all about the psychological moments, the state of mind of people for whom this is the easiest and most affordable way to reduce the level of anxiety and stress in the current uncertain situation,” says Bragin. – According to toxicologists, alcohol in the first minutes serves as an excellent antidepressant, but after a few hours, on the contrary, it can aggravate melancholy and sadness. This is a global reality, but in the case of Russia, we are talking about vodka. Imported whiskey, cognac, brandy, rum make up a very small share of our sales.”

The main turnover of the Russian alcohol market is provided by consumers of domestic vodka – harddrinkers, as marketers call them. Growth by 7.5% is most likely due to their increased activity in 2022. Perhaps, against the backdrop of geopolitical stresses, a certain number of newcomers have been added to this “old guard”. But there is another circumstance originating in the covid 2020. Then someone started a rumor that the coronavirus is the closest relative of malaria, for which the British soldiers of the East India Company were treated with a tonic with quinine mixed with gin to alleviate unbearable bitterness. Annual sales of imported gin rose from 46% to 67%, according to various sources, says Bragin. And since March 2022 (when supplies from abroad fell), Russian enterprises began to mass-produce domestic analogues of this product, as well as generics of foreign liquors with a strength above 25 degrees. And at a more than attractive price of 500-600 rubles. The people could well react to it.

“In any crisis, the consumption of strong alcohol always grows by several percent, and people (and all over the world) start drinking less wine by a comparable amount,” says Vadim Drobiz, director of the Center for Research on Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets. – Another thing is that the current situation has affected the Russians very seriously – both psychologically and socio-economically. The middle class suffered the most. In 2022, he lost his usual opportunity to travel abroad two or three times on vacation. Having remained in the country, this category began to be more often applied to vodka and cognac. But you can’t say that consumption volumes have grown catastrophically: for example, before a person drank 100 grams at a time, and now the conditional 110 has become the norm.”

As for the alleged shortage of strong imported alcohol, Drobiz considers the topic far-fetched. According to him, Russians who are accustomed to Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey or Hennessy French cognac did not have to buy all this for future use, in boxes. The products of Western brands that have left the country can still be found on the shelves today, however, in a narrower circle of outlets.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28984 dated March 7, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Hit with vodka on sanctions