Turks drink less rakı, more champagne

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet photo

Turks drank less of their traditional alcoholic drinks like rakı and wine, but indulged more in champagne in 2012 compared to last year while the country’s overall alcoholic drink consumption increased by 6.3 percent.

Sales of alcoholic drinks, including those imported from other countries, increase by 67 million liters last year, reaching to 1.1 billion liters, according to data provided by the state’s Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Authority.

The overall increase was mainly due to beer sales, which were 998.9 million, although champagne sales also saw a huge jump with a 91.1 rise to hit 826,770 liters.

Beer has been the alcoholic beverage drunk most in Turkey for years.

Meanwhile, the import of overall alcoholic beverages fell by 3.3 percent, which seems moderate compared to the 26.4 percent plummet of beer imports, a number that suggests domestic beers were favored most last year. Champagne also attracts attention in the import list as it surged by 89 percent.

The losers of 2012 were beverages once thought of as traditional Turkish preferences, as rakı consumption retreated to 44.6 million liters with an 8.6 percent plunge. Turks also consumed 56.4 million liters wine, 3.8 percent less than they sipped in 2011.

Alcoholic beverage export also fell by 11 percent to 11.2 million liter due to decrease of vodka and liquor exports. Vodka exports faced a huge plunge to 16,500 liter from 56,000 while liquor exports were only 774 liter. Turkey exported 6,100 liter liqor in 2011. Beer, rakı and wine exports have surged during the same period.

According to figures from the last five years, rakı consumption remained relatively the same while whisky consumption was boosted by 169.5 percent. Vodka drinking rose by 71.5 percent, wine drinking by 48.8 percent and beer consumption increased by a moderate 7.9 percent.