MOSCOW, October 17 6. /TASS/. Sales of alcoholic beverages in Russia, excluding beer, beverages made on the basis of beer, cider, perry and mead, gained 4.4% year-on-year in January - September 2023 and amounted to 164.3 mln decaliters, the Russian Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation said.
Retail sales of brandy had an uptick by 10.5%, to 9.7 mln decaliters in January-September 2023 and by 9.2% to 1.1 mln decaliters in September 2023. Vodka sales lost 0.3% to 55.6 mln decaliters in the reporting period of this year and 1.7% in this September to 6.3 mln decaliters.
During the reporting period, sales of alcoholic beverages with a strength of more than 9% increased by 2% to 84.2 mln decaliters. Sales of alcoholic beverages with a strength above 25% gained 24.6% to 9.9 mln decaliters, while sales of alcoholic beverages with a strength of up to 25% plunged by 88.4% to 174,000 decaliters.
According to the regulator, sales of low-alcohol goods moved up by 17.5% in January - September 2023 to 12.9 mln decaliters. Sales of grape wines edged up by 5.9% to 41.9 mln decaliters, and sales of sparkling wines increased by 9.9% to 13.4 mln decaliters. Fruit alcoholic drinks had the rise of 18.2% in sales to 9.1 mln decaliters.
Sales of grape-containing drinks without ethyl alcohol fell 80.3% year on year to 667,300 decaliters, while sales of grape-containing drinks with ethyl alcohol moved up by 33.2% to 1.23 mln decaliters. Liqueur wine sales increased by 75.2% year on year to 881,000 decaliters.