Travellers still importing a lot of beer to Finland

Press release 23 August 2005

TNS Gallup monitoring of private imports, summer 2005
Travellers still importing a lot of beer to Finland

According to TNS Gallup, imports of beer for private consumption look to be settling at last year’s level despite domestic price campaigns. The forecast for imports this year is 39 million litres. Every tenth litre of beer is still brought from abroad and an ever-increasing proportion of imported beer is manufactured somewhere other than Finland. Imports of cider and long drinks have increased from last year. Importation by travellers is causing difficulties for Finnish brewers and domestic beer production. Estonia’s beer tax is only a fraction of Finland’s and the Finnish brewing industry cannot compete with the current beer tax level being what it is. The beer tax should be halved.

The TNS Gallup survey was conducted until week 32 and is based on 15,512 interviews. Estimates based on the interviews put the amount of beer imported by travellers in 2005 at approximately 39 million litres, which is slightly more than last year. The summer price campaigns do not seem to have had a dampening effect on imports by travellers. What’s more, an increasing amount of imported beer is produced somewhere other than Finland. With Estonia’s EU membership, private beer imports jumped to 38 million litres last year. In 2003, only 27 million litres of beer was imported.

Imports of cider and long drinks by travellers are still on the rise. According to estimates, this year Finns will import about 6 million litres of cider for private consumption. This is over 14 per cent of last year’s domestic cider sales. Estimates put long drink imports at 5.5 million litres, which is over 23 per cent of last year’s domestic long drink sales. In 2004, a total of 4.4 million litres of cider and 3.2 million litres of long drinks were imported.

Imports of other alcoholic beverages by travellers have also increased. Estimates place imports of wine at 8.2 million litres, intermediate products at 2.5 million litres and spirits at 12.7 million litres this year. (2004: wine 6.5, intermediate products 2.6 and strong alcoholic beverages 10.8 million litres.)



With the beer tax at its current level, the Finnish brewing industry cannot compete with import beer even if it made its operations more efficient. Private imports gnaw at the Finnish beverage industry’s operating environment and chip away at Finnish jobs. Sweden too is considering lowering its beer tax by 30 per cent. If Sweden lowers its beer tax, Finland must follow suit to at least the same level. This would mean halving our current beer tax.

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Additional information:
Managing Director Timo Jaatinen, tel. +358 (0)9 1488 7407
Communications Manager Katri Tuulensuu, tel. +358 (0)9 1488 7601, GSM +358 (0)40 777 1938

The Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry promotes the interests of producers of beer, cider, long drinks, soft drinks and mineral waters in Finland. Its members are Oy Hartwall Ab, Nokian Panimo Oy, Olvi Oyj and Oy Sinebrychoff Ab. The Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry operates in connection with the Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation and is among the four largest industries in the food and drink branch in terms of the value of production