Review of Russian Wine, Cognac and Vodka Markets 2024

FBK has drawn up a review of the Russian alcoholic beverages market.

The review focuses on the main trends observed in the Russian wine, cognac and vodka markets in recent years, as well as the current situation in the industry and price competition between the most popular brands. The review also studies the development specifics of the global alcoholic beverage industry, which affect the development of the domestic alcoholic beverages market.

Key facts and conclusions

World:

• Global alcohol consumption per capita has been steadily declining due to the trend towards healthy consumption and the rising cost of living. However, certain emerging markets demonstrate growing demand (India, Mexico, Brazil, and African countries). Analysts expect a ~1% growth in global alcohol consumption from 2023 to 2027.
• Premiumisation, growth in domestic consumption, rising demand for sparkling wines and certain types of spirits (whisky, brandy, rum, tequila) were the key trends in the global alcohol market in 2023.
• The global alcoholic beverages market is characterised by high competition and, as a result, stable prices with no upward trend.

Russia:

• The Russian alcoholic beverages market is highly competitive: in monetary terms, 80% of retail sales is accounted for by the 30 major producers.
• In Russia, there is an upward trend in per capita domestic consumption of alcoholic beverages. This goes against the global trend towards its decline and the shift towards consumption of alternative non-alcoholic beverages, which is slower in Russia compared to the global market.
• The trend of moderate and healthy consumption in the Russian alcohol market is manifested by the shift of demand towards sparkling and still wines. This market segment is growing at a higher rate than the Russian alcohol market as a whole and is characterised by increased competition due to the high availability of various domestic and imported brands.
• Russia is the fifth largest alcohol importer in the world. CIS countries have started to play a larger part in Russian alcohol imports, mainly due to the supply of alcoholic beverages through parallel import channels.
• The volume of Russian alcohol imports has partially recovered after the market restructuring caused by the geopolitical crisis of 2022. The withdrawal of foreign brands has freed up market niches that are starting to be filled in by local producers.

“The Russian alcohol market has been going though serious restructuring in 2022–2023. Local producers and importers from friendly countries began to fill in market niches vacated by the withdrawing foreign brands. At the same time, it should be noted that the reduction in imports of alcoholic beverages in Russia in 2022 was insignificant on the market scale and amounted to no more than 3%, as the withdrawing players were mainly in the premium segment. It was pretty much the same with exports. Export restrictions following sanctions and a decline in exports in 2022 did not affect the volume of domestic production, which increased to compensate for domestic demand and new target markets such as China and India,” said Boris Yatsenko, Managing Partner at FBK.

“In the future, the Russian alcohol market will demonstrate a trend towards moderate consumption of strong liquors and a shift in demand towards sparkling and still wines,” summarises Elena Markelova, Director of the Valuation & Transaction Advisory Services Department at FBK. “The growth rates of this segment are higher than the average indicators of the alcohol market. At the same time, the sparkling and still wine segment is very competitive due to the high availability of various domestic and imported brands. Despite the fact that EU countries have imposed restrictions on exports of products priced over €300 per bottle to Russia, Italy and Spain have in fact increased exports of the mid-range priced wines throughout 2022.”