Russia may ban sales of beer in plastic bottles

Huhu, so Russia’s legislators are thinking of banning the sale of beer in plastic bottles from January 2013. Could this ban hurt brewers’ sales? You bet it will. Russian brewers sell nearly half their beer – over 45 million hl – in plastic bottles, it was reported. Should brewers have seen this coming? Of course. Selling beer in multi-litre plastic bottles has always been risky, if not to say insidiously obscene. Beer is not a soft drink. Hence it should not be packaged like one.

The proposed ban on beer in PET bottles seems to be the latest move by Russia’s government to clamp down on alcohol abuse. Brewers may wail and moan, but there is no denying that they have become a sitting target. After raising the excise tax on beer in 2010 over protest from the brewing industry, legislators banned the nighttime sale of drinks in Moscow. To top this off they are now considering a ban on drinking alcohol in public places.

SABMiller reported on 27 April 2011 that a proposed ban on drinking beer in public places will have its second reading in the Duma soon. If passed, anyone

drinking beer in public places could be fined several thousands of rubles (1,000 rubles = EUR 25).

Seems like brewers in Russia had better brace themselves for tough business times ahead.