Sales of beverages in Turkey untouched by crisis

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Sales of alcoholic beverages rose 19.96 percent last year compared to a year earlier. The volume of alcoholic beverage sales last year surpassed 1.1 billion liters in the country, which has a population of 71.4 million and was visited by 26.5 million tourists last year.

The volume of alcoholic beverages sold in 2006 was 880.97 million liters, according to the Tobacco Products and Alcoholic Beverages Regulatory Board, or TAPDK, data. The figure includes both import and local brands and rose to 921.24 million in 2007. Then in 2008, alcohol consumption in the country increased another 180,34 million liters to reach nearly 1.1 billion liters, Anatolia news agency reported, citing data from the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Agency, or TAPDK.

Some 5.96 million liters of the booze sold in the country in 2008 was import, while 1.96 billion was domestic. Turkey exported 78.91 million liters of alcoholic beverages last year.

There was a significant increase in rakı sales last year, according to TAPDK data. The sales of rakı, the "national drink," displayed a fall of 3.8 million liters in 2007 compared to 2006. But that changed last year with some 44.6 million liters of rakı consumed. That was 1.89 million liters more than a year earlier. Nearly 122.2 liters of rakı per day was sold in the country last year.

The highest increase in sales volume was seen in wine.

Wine consumption in the country increased 66 percent in 2008 compared to a year earlier. Some 37.91 million liters of wine was sold last year. That was an increase of 15.66 million from 2007’s 22.84 million liters. Champagne sales increased to 460,547 liters last year from just under 400,000 liters a year earlier.

Whisky sales also rose to 1.67 million liters in 2008. Total whisky sales were 1.43 million liters a year earlier. The Turkish government mid-last week announced its decision to cut taxes on imported whisky and other alcoholic drinks, harmonizing the regulations with those of the European Union, which it is in talks to join.

The changes, published in Ankara yesterday in the government’s Official Gazette, will cut the price of whisky and bring an increase of less than 1 Turkish Lira ($0.60) to bottles of rakı. The new rates will reduce the tax on a liter of whisky by about 10 liras, Bloomberg reported citing Dünya newspaper.

During 2008, vodka sales also rose to 8.8 million liters from 5.98 million liters a year earlier. Following a similar trend gin sales also increased to 1.23 million liters from 1.145 million liters a year earlier. The total increase in vodka, whisky and gin sales between the 2007 and 2008 were 2.83 million liters, 237,000 liters, 89,000 liters respectively.

The increasing trend in beer sales also continued last year. In 2008 beer consumption rose 80.26 million liters compared to a year earlier and reached a whopping 925.02 million liters. Nearly 2.53 million liters of beer was consumed per day last year. The beer consumption per person was 120 liters in Germany and Denmark last year. In Turkey, that figure rose to 13 liters per person from 10.5 liters per person.