OREANDA-NEWS  In 2018, sales of alcoholic beverages in Russia showed an increase of 4.6% in monetary terms compared to the previous year, Nielsen estimated as part of the retail audit ("Trends in the Russian alcohol market" ). Growth showed almost all categories of alcoholic beverages, except vodka. The absolute values traditionally Nielsen did not disclose.

Despite the growth in sales, the share of alcoholic beverages in the volume of everyday goods in monetary terms decreased from 20.2 to 20% last year. The structure of the FMCG market showed a decline in almost all categories-and food (decreased from 54 to 53.8%), and non-food products (from 11.7 to 11.2%). Their shares, as follows from Nielsen data, were redistributed in favor of tobacco products, which took 15% of the entire FMCG market at the end of 2018, compared to 14.1% in 2017. ​

This is due to the change in consumer demand of Russians who save and choose cheaper products or goods for promotions, which affects sales in monetary terms, explained RBC head of the group to work with customers Nielsen Alla Petrosyan. There is no promotion in the tobacco sector, so its sales are growing faster in monetary terms than all other categories, she explained.

The fastest growing categories of alcoholic beverages showed the greatest price reduction over the past year. The reasons were the increase in the number of promotions and year-round representation, that is, the uniformity of supply and demand, regardless of, for example, the season or holidays.

In 2018, more than 210 million decaliters of alcohol were sold, excluding beer, cider and Mead (8.5% more than in 2017).As for everyday goods (FMCG market), all categories of goods showed a decline, including food and non-food products.

In late January, it was reported that Russian importers of alcohol since the beginning of the year increased prices, in some cases-up to 20 percent. The main reasons are the increase from the beginning of the year VAT to 20 percent.