PUNE: Beer sales in Pune district showed growth in seven months from April to December 2018, with a double-digit increase in five of them, after sliding for the last two years during the same period.One reason for the rising sales was that more youngsters are taking to beer as the drink of choice, and another is the dedicated following that beer drinking has, an excise official said. “Beer gives a different high than Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). People prefer it to hard liquor,” he added.Sales saw the highest growth during most months in the nine-month period of 2018 in comparison with 2016 and 2017. Despite the winter chill, December, being the month for parties, had the maximum growth.Pune also guzzled much more beer than IMFL, country liquor and wine from April to December 2018.Beer sales in the district grew by over 15% last April, the highest since 2016.In 2017, there was a 19% drop in sales due to the ban on liquor on highways. An over 20% growth was registered in December 2018 after a two-year plunge in sales for the same month in 2016 and 2017.Retailers said around 800 retail shops, bars and beer shops opened in April 2018 after the government lifted the highway liquor ban in rural areas where the population is 5,000 and above.A liquor distributor in the city said the ban had adversely affected the sale of all kinds of liquor, but beer sales were hardest hit.“We witnessed a decline in beer sales in 2016 and 2017, with some recovery in 2018. The growth in this segment in 2018 was about 7-8%, which too is unlike the growth we saw before 2016,” he added.In November 2017, the state government changed the duty structure of beer and the MRP shot up from Rs 145 to Rs 160 for a 650ml bottle.“Leading beer manufacturers stopped producing beer for some time as they were negotiating with the government, which led to a shortage of beer in the market. This further hampered sales during the tail-end of 2017,” a source added.A top liquor retailer in the city said after beer production temporarily stopped from November 1 to December 23, 2017, leading to a shortage, many consumers switched to hard liquor. This explains the plunge in beer sales in December 2017 even though the highway liquor ban was lifted in municipal areas.“During most of 2018, there were no such issues. Beer production was normal while the highway liquor ban was lifted from municipal areas which gave a boost to beer sales. When sales were low in 2017, the growth in 2018 would naturally be double-digit as beer sales normalized in most part of the year,” he said.

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