Beer Production Decreased by 15,2%

Azerbaijan ended the active season of beer consumption and, apparently, only importers were satisfied.

In the first nine months of this year, the local beer production totaled 38 million liters, which is 15.2% less than in the comparable period in 2014. In the warehouses manufacturers had a stock of finished goods at 4.1 million liters, the State Statistics Committee told Turan.

The biggest beer producer in Azerbaijan is the Russian company Baltika-Baku, which controls 70% of the beer market in the country. The company is located in the Absheron region, where in 2014 bottling beer decreased by 3.2%. The share of this region in 2014 was 89.4% of the domestic production.

For the first 6 months of this year, the volume of imports of beer increased 11 times and amounted to 1 million 556 thousand liters. The share of German brands for the period was 134.4 thousand, Belgian brands - 64.4 thousand, Dutch brands - 96.7 thousand and Turkish brands - more than 1 million liters of beer. The volume of purchases of beer from abroad in monetary terms was $ 1 million 264.4 thousand in H1, 2015.

 According to the State Customs Committee, for the entire 2014 there was delivered from abroad 554 thousand liters of beer. Perhaps it is only legally declared rate of imports. The analysis of the Customs statistics shows that from this year on Azerbaijani customs began to make out the actual volume of imports. This is due to the difficulties of the plan for the collection of customs taxes and duties.

Calculation shows that Azerbaijan on the consumption of beer per capita occupies one of the lowest positions among developed and developing countries. In 2014, taking into account production and import, the consumption was 5.52 liters per capita. In 2014, beer production in the country fell by 1.3%. In 2013, the peak was recorded for domestic production during the independence period since 1991 - 56 million 155 thousand liters. This was 9.6% higher than the figure for 2012. The production of beer is available in more than 10 regions of the country. --08B