OREANDA-NEWS. April 26, 2011. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 1.8% on the year in January-March 2011 to 3.8 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee stated.

In March, vodka and hard liquor output rose 11.9% on the year to 1.4 million decaliters.

In the period, cognac output amounted to 68,000 decaliters, up 1.4% on the year. “Cognac” is a name used to denote a type of brandy in the former Soviet Union.

The production of sparkling wines went up 6.6% on the year in the period to 356,000 decaliters.

Grape wine output rose 26.2% to 593,000 decaliters.

The output of fruit wines rose 4.4% to 4.2 million decaliters.

Inventories of vodka and other liquors amounted to 1.5 million decaliters on April 1, 2011, 119.6% of the monthly output.

Vodka sales increased 1.9% on the year in January-March 2011 to 2.511 million decaliters. Sales of other hard drinks rose 40.9% to 482,600 decaliters, sales of grape wines went up 25.4% on the year to 744,100 decaliters.

Sales of cognac went up 40.7% to 85,700 decaliters, sales of sparkling wines went up 24.7% on the year to 311,800 decaliters. Sales of fruit wines increased 7.9% to 3.845 million decaliters.

The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages [in absolute alcohol terms on April 1, 2011] in Belarus decreased to 43.4% in January-March 2011 from 46.7% in January-March 2010. The share of other hard drinks rose 2.4 percentage point to 6.3%. The share of grape wines in alcohol sales edged up 0.6 of a percentage point to 4.5%.

Fruit wine sales share decreased 0.5 of a percentage point to 29.9%.

The share of cognac edged up 0.3 of a percentage point to 1.5% and of sparkling wines rose 0.2 of a point to 1.5 percentage points.