OREANDA-NEWS. November 03, 2009. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 5% on the year in January-September to 10.4 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee told.

In monetary terms, vodka and hard liquor output increased 5.1% to 421.6 billion Belarusian rubles (Br).

In the period, cognac output amounted to 179,000 decaliters, up 24.3% on the year. “Cognac” is a name used to denote a type of brandy in the former Soviet Union.

Belarus’ output of grape wines decreased 14.2% on the year to 1.407 million decaliters, and the output of fruit wines decreased 8.1% to 13.9 million decaliters. The production of sparkling wines went up 11% on the year in the period to 855,000 decaliters.

Vodka sales increased 0.2% on the year in January-September to 8.003 million decaliters. Sales of other hard drinks rose 14.6% to 895,000 decaliters, sales of grape wines went down 5.9% on the year to 1.74 million decaliters.

Sales of cognac went down 20.4% to 150,000 decaliters, sales of sparkling wines edged down 1% on the year to 738,000 decaliters. Sales of fruit wines fell 7.2% to 11.971 million decaliters.

The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages [in absolute alcohol terms on October 1] in Belarus rose to 46.5% in January-September from 46.5% in January-September 2008. The share of other hard drinks rose 0.6 of a percentage point to 3.9%. The share of grape wines in alcohol sales edged down 0.2 of a percentage point to 3.5%.

Fruit wine sales share decreased 1.9 percentage points, still remaining high at 31.3%.

The share of cognac edged down 0.2 of a percentage point to 0.9% and of sparkling wines remained unchanged at 1.2%.