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World - Europe

Russia's beer market ready to be tapped

Beer production is by far the single fastest growing consumer industry in Russia
VIDEO
CNN's Mike Hanna attends the festival.
Windows Media 28K 80K
 

From Correspondent Mike Hanna

July 20, 1999
Web posted at: 9:26 p.m. EDT (0126 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- The opening of Moscow's annual beer festival is reason to celebrate in Russia, often overlooked as a nation of vodka drinkers.

Despite an economic crisis that has sent consumer spending plummeting, sales of Russian beers increased 20 percent in the first quarter of 1999.

"I like our Russian beer, I like it very much," said one patron, who sampled one of the more than 25 brands available at the festival.

Beer production is by far the single fastest growing consumer industry in Russia, where per capita beer consumption is still one-third of that in the rest of Europe.

A decade ago, just one brand of beer could be found on the market here. But that was before many Russians came to the intoxicating realization that beer drinkers thirst for choice in a free market economy.

"If they sent me into the cosmos and said that I could take one drink with me," proclaimed one merry drinker, "I'd take beer."


RELATED SITES:
Russian Beer
PROSPECTS FOR THE BEER MARKET IN RUSSIA
Russian Government Internet Network Home Page
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