Romanians’ average consumption of non-alcoholic beverages declined by 3.8% year on year in 2024, equivalent to a drop of 9.3 litres per capita, according to a study by the National Institute of Statistics cited by Economica.net.

Total annual per capita consumption of non-alcoholic beverages – including mineral water, soft drinks, and non-alcoholic beer – stood at 244 litres in 2024, or about 20 litres per month. The overall decline was driven mainly by lower mineral water consumption.

Average mineral water consumption fell to 117.5 litres per capita, down 4.9% compared with 2023, or six litres less per person. This brought consumption levels back to those recorded in 2022, after steady growth since 2021. In 2023, the mineral water industry reported a 4.5% increase in consumption.

Soft drink consumption also declined in 2024, reflecting higher retail prices following the introduction of a sugar tax. According to INS data, average soft drink consumption decreased by 3.3%, or 3.9 litres per capita, compared with the previous year. This reversed a multi-year upward trend that began in 2020, when per capita consumption was below 100 litres. The strongest growth was recorded in 2021, when soft drink consumption surged by 28.5% year on year.

In contrast, non-alcoholic beer was the only category to record growth. Average per capita consumption rose by 12.5% in 2024 to 5.4 litres, an increase of 0.6 litres compared with 2023.

INS data show that consumption was covered by a combination of domestic production, imports, and existing stocks. Production of non-alcoholic beverages edged down by 0.3% year on year to 48.4 million hectolitres. Imports fell more sharply, by 9.1%, accounting for 5.7% of total resources, while opening stocks were 11.7% higher than a year earlier.

As a result, total resources of non-alcoholic beverages increased slightly by 7.6 thousand hectolitres compared with 2023.

Mineral water continued to hold the largest share of non-alcoholic beverage consumption, although its share declined by 0.6 percentage points. The share of soft drinks increased by 0.3 percentage points, while non-alcoholic beer also gained 0.3 percentage points.

The same INS study showed lower average per capita consumption of wine and distilled alcoholic beverages in 2024, while beer consumption remained broadly unchanged.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Iryna Kushnarova/Dreamstime.com, AI generated)