E-Malt.com News article: Russia: Dangerous under the counter alternatives to beer and vodka rise in popularity

As the economic crisis sweeps through Russia, a dangerous trend is emerging: the rise in consumption of potentially lethal moonshine, medical alcohol or even cleaning products, reported UsNews, March 25.

Layoffs, wage cuts and price increases are combining to worsen the problem, by increasing the mix of dangerous products in the market. Those who can no longer afford store-bought drinks are turning to "under the counter" alternatives that can cause serious damage, even death.

"A number of patients who previously could afford expensive spirits are now forced to reorient in the sense that they use cheaper and lower-quality spirits," Alexander Polikarpov, the head doctor of the Alcospas chain of alcohol rehab clinics in Moscow, says in his consulting room.

Sales of legal beer and vodka have fallen sharply as prices rise, buoyed in part by the rising cost of imported ingredients after the ruble's value tumbled last year. Analysts say falling sales likely don't mean that demand is falling, simply that it is being pushed into an illegal and dangerous black market.

The alternatives to increasingly costly legal alcohol are many and varied. At the safer end of the scale is vodka production diverted and sold on the side by workers at legitimate distilleries, but some products, such as industrial spirits or moonshine made by inexperienced or unscrupulous distillers, can be lethal. Some of the most harmful yet popular alternatives to legal alcohol are liquids designed "for hair growth or for cleaning the bath," says market analyst Vadim Drobiz.

Sales of beer, were down 10.5 percent year-on-year by volume in January, according to figures from Nielsen Russia. The beer market remained stable by value because prices rose to a new high, Nielsen spokesperson Ekaterina Lukina told The Associated Press.

Vodka, which is more popular among older drinkers, continued a long-term decline in sales, which fell 17.6 percent by volume and two percent by value. That drop is mainly due to government instituting a legal minimum price for vodka. While that minimum of 185 rubles ($2.96) for a half-litre bottle is low by European standards, it is costly for low-earning Russians in the poverty-stricken provincial towns where moonshine is most popular.

Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin ordered the minimum price cut by 16 percent. While the move was celebrated in Russian media, it did not fully reverse last year's 29 percent rise, never mind similar hikes in previous years.

That has swelled the black market, Nielsen analyst Marina Lapenkova says.

"Today the share of illegal vodka market adds up to half of the total market," she said in e-mailed comments, adding that recession will just exacerbate the problem.


27 March, 2015