OREANDA-NEWS. May 31, 2011. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 3.6% on the year in January-April 2011 to 5.1 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee told reporters Friday.

In the period, cognac output amounted to 87,000 decaliters, unchanged 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 4.4% on the year in the period to 448,000 decaliters.

Grape wine output rose 30.9% to 848,000 decaliters.

The output of fruit wines rose 1.6% to 5.4 million decaliters.

Inventories of vodka and other liquors amounted to 1.5 million decaliters on May 1, 2011, 119.8% of the monthly output.

Vodka sales increased 2.7% on the year in January-April 2011 to 3.439 million decaliters. Sales of other hard drinks rose 40.3% to 659,000 decaliters, sales of grape wines went up 24.9% on the year to 1.034 million decaliters.

Sales of cognac went up 41.8% to 115,000 decaliters, sales of sparkling wines went up 25% on the year to 397,000 decaliters. Sales of fruit wines increased 6.7% to 5.333 million decaliters.

The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages [in absolute alcohol terms on April 1, 2011] in Belarus decreased to 43.2% in January-April 2011 from 46.1% in January-April 2010. The share of other hard drinks rose 1.4 percentage points to 6.2%. The share of grape wines in alcohol sales edged up 0.5 of a percentage point to 4.5%.

Fruit wine sales share decreased 0.8 of a percentage point to 30.2%.

The share of cognac edged up 0.4 of a percentage point to 1.5% and of sparkling wines rose 0.2 of a point to 1.4 percentage points.