Vodka Production - New Record in Russia

Russia broke the record for producing the largest amount of vodka in one month, in June of this year Russia was able to produce 96 Million liters (~25 Million Gallon) against a usual 56 Million liter (~15 Million Gallon) a month.

Reason behind this is the planned increase of excise tax on alcohol per the 1^st of July, producers were still able to produce the 96 million liter before the 1^st of July and get it to the shops before the higher excise tax kicked in.

As the majority of vodka customers have to count every rouble before spending it the producers can’t just increase the price and hand down the excise tax increase to the customer as they won’t be able to afford the vodka anymore. As other price hikes has already driven down demand for legal vodka the amount of vodka producing plants has already halved over the past years.

The demand didn’t go down because people gave up drinking it went down because people started drinking more of the cheaper illegally produced vodka, known in Russia as “from the garage”. Specialists predict that the illegal vodka will dominate the market from next year causing Russia a major headache, instead of regulating vodka intake by regulating the price, statistics show this will back fire and illegal vodka will dominate costing the country because of losing the excise tax.

Of course vodka is Russia’s choice of drink number 1 but others are increasingly picking up, especially wine is coming up fast in the larger cities around Russia, so if you are looking at exporting to Russia make sure you are informed of all laws including tax laws.

 

via Learn Russian