Consumption of bottled beverages in the Russian Federation tends to grow steadily. In 2020, the volume of all types of beverages amounted to about 15.8 billion litres. The greatest dynamics is observed in the sector of production of artificially mineralized water and production of drinks with the addition of juices and fruit drinks. The growth trend of the segment with low consumer value and relatively low production cost indicates a decrease in the cost of the average consumer basket with a simultaneous tendency for the population to get used to the use of bottled products in everyday life for culinary purposes and domestic consumption (in 2020, the share of drinking water without added sugar was 28.3%). The lack of growth in consumption and the volatility of the segment “Drinking Water and Soft Drinks for Baby Food” indicates a decrease in the purchasing power of the population and the absence of centralized programs for the development of baby food production.
The market demand for non-alcoholic products is almost completely satisfied by domestic production, according to [1], the share of imports in recent years is only 4–4.5%. In value terms, the largest share of imports is occupied by juice products, while the leaders in supplies are China (22%, mainly apple juice) and Brazil (orange juice).
Figure 1 shows the structure of production volumes of soft drinks in the Russian Federation over the past 4 years.
In recent years, there has been a serious discussion about the benefits and harms of non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) with added sugar. One of the reasons for the pressure on the market of sugar-containing drinks is the expanding expansion of exporters of sweetening surrogates - sugar substitutes. In Table 1 and Figure 2 you can see the dynamics of sales of non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) with added sugar and juice products on the Russian market by main categories in 2010–2018.
As can be seen from Fig. 2, the data of sources [1] and [2] quite convincingly correlate with each other. After steady growth in sales until 2014, starting from 2015, there has been a decline in the sale of NAB in all categories, except for bottled drinking water. This nature of the dynamics is associated with a decrease in the purchasing power of the population after 2014, with the effect of an “anti-sugar” campaign in the media superimposed. At the same time, there is a tendency for a slight increase in sales of specialized products: energy drinks, sports drinks, bottled tea and coffee. Special products are usually formulated with low-calorie sweeteners.