OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2010. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 2.8% on the year in January-December 2009 to 14.1 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee told.

In monetary terms, vodka and hard liquor output increased 2.9% to 568.4 billion Belarusian rubles (Br).

In the period, cognac output amounted to 225,000 decaliters, up 33.1% on the year. “Cognac” is a name used to denote a type of brandy in the former Soviet Union.

Belarus’ output of grape wines decreased 9% on the year to 1.922 million decaliters, and the output of fruit wines decreased 7.6% to 18.7 million decaliters. The production of sparkling wines went up 16% on the year in the period to 1.263 million decaliters.

Vodka sales decreased 1.4% on the year in January-December to 10.728 million decaliters. Sales of other hard drinks rose 14.4% to 1.268 million decaliters, sales of grape wines went down 6% on the year to 2.364 million decaliters.

Sales of cognac went down 17% to 216,000 decaliters, sales of sparkling wines edged up 1.2% on the year to 1.147 million decaliters. Sales of fruit wines fell 7.1% to 16.003 million decaliters.

The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages [in absolute alcohol terms on January 1, 2010] in Belarus rose to 46.5% in January-December from 46.1% in January-December 2008. The share of other hard drinks rose 0.6 of a percentage point to 4.1%. The share of grape wines in alcohol sales edged down 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.6%.

Fruit wine sales share decreased 1.6 percentage points, still remaining high at 31.2%.

The share of cognac edged down 0.3 of a percentage point to 0.9% and of sparkling wines increased 0.1 of a percentage point.