OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2011. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 11.9% on the year in January-September 2011 to 11.8 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee told.

Vodka and liquor production totaled 1.6 million dal, up 16.5% on the year.

In the period, cognac output amounted to 156,000 decaliters, 3.3% up on the year. “Cognac” is a name used to denote a type of brandy in the former Soviet Union. The production of sparkling wines went up 5.6% on the year in the period to 1,085,000 decaliters. Grape wine output rose 13% to 1.926 million decaliters. The output of fruit wines went down 7.2% to 12.2 million decaliters.

Inventories of vodka and other liquors amounted to 600,000 decaliters on October 1, 2011, 47.9% of the monthly output. Stock reserve of cognac stood at 8,000 decaliters (46.2%), grape wine – 277,000 decaliters (129.4%), fruit wine – 200,000 decaliters (13.3%).

Vodka sales increased 17.3% on the year in January-September 2011 to 8.934 million decaliters. Sales of other hard drinks rose 35.6% to 1.572 million decaliters. Sales of cognac went up 38.1% on the year to 246,700 decaliters. Sales of grape wines went up 15.7% on the year to 2.238 million decaliters. Sales of champagne and sparkling wines went up 24.6% on the year to 944,700 decaliters. Sales of fruit wines fell 0.8% to 12.582 million decaliters. Sales of low-alcohol beverages went down 31.5% to 653,700 decaliters.

The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages in absolute alcohol terms in Belarus grew by 2.1 percentage point from January-September 2010 to 45%. The share of other hard drinks rose 1 percentage points to 5.9%. The share of grape wines in alcohol sales edged up 0.1 percentage point to 4.1%.

Fruit wine sales share decreased 3.4 percentage points to 28.5%. The share of cognac edged up 0.3 percentage points to 1.3%, and of champagne and sparkling wines rose 0.1 percentage points to 1.3%. The share of low-alcohol beverages went down 0.3 percentage point to 0.5%.