Also wonder how supplies of home brew or indices of methanol poisoning are holding up.
Is it possible this writer is adept at a muddled story as some in the US who report on the economy?
If I have a few minutes later, I will try to look for some other press on the topic, but....
DC
On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 6:34 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3513268/Russians-turn-away-from-vodka-in-hard-times.html
> >
>
> Russians turn away from vodka in hard times
> The global financial crisis is succeeding where many a Kremlin campaign has
> failed by forcing Russians to turn away from the vodka bottle.
>
> By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
> Last Updated: 5:52PM GMT 24 Nov 2008
>
> Russians have such a love affair with vodka that they have built a museum
> dedicated to it in Moscow Photo: EPA
> With retailers struggling to find credit and ordinary Russians being forced
> to change their spending, a vast lake of undrunk vodka is accumulating in
> distilleries across Russia.
>
> Official statistics indicate a collapse in demand for vodka over the past
> two months. November inventories of unsold vodka stock have risen to 82
> million litres, a 600 per cent increase from 2007, according to the National
> Alcohol Association.
> The vodka lake has grown even as desperate producers have slashed output,
> which fell by 15 per cent in October according to industry estimates.
>
> Retailers and producers alike attribute the main reason for the collapse in
> the market to the evaporation of credit, with many suppliers unable to
> refinance loans from banks to buy new supplies.
>
> "People are spending less money on alcohol and other products because of
> the financial crisis," said Pavel Shapkin, the executive secretary of the
> National Alcohol Association. "As people try to save money, they are turning
> to cheaper brands."
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