The growth rate of the Russian beer market, one of the fastest in the world, is reaching its saturation, according to a report of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Sevices Agency. The Agency’s analysts forecast the growth of beer market in the next several years to be about 5-8%, while in 2002 it reached 20%. The decreasing of growth rates is attributed to the partial saturation of the market: 49 litres of beer per capita in 2002. The full saturation is expected to be reached when the beer consumption per capita comes to 70 litres. Meanwhile, the analysts said that Russians tend to drink more qualitative beer. If in 2000 premium beers accounted 17.1% of all Russian beer consumption in 2003 that index may come to 25.4%. According to the figures of 2002 year, 67% of beer consumed in Russia was concentrated on price segment (35 cents per 0.5 litre), while the premium segment (on average 64 cents per 0.5 litre) accounted only 20%.

29 October, 2003