Bottled water consumption in Russia, 2017-2020 & forecast 2024

Bottled water in recent years has become the fastest growing segment in the beverage market both in Russia and in the world as a whole. One of the reasons is the growing trend towards a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition: the sector of drinks containing sugar or colorings is losing ground due to consumers' concern over the body's water balance and sugar content.

Russians also buy bottled water because of the high level of deterioration of utility networks, which reduces the quality of tap water. In this publication, we will share data on the volume and forecast of the Russian bottled water market for 2017-2024.

In 2020, according to Rosstat and the Federal Customs Service, the consumption of bottled drinking water increased by 1.6 billion liters compared to 2019 and amounted to 27.2 billion liters. The volume of consumption in monetary terms from 2017 to 2020 increased by 44.4% and reached 1.06 trillion rubles.

The volume of bottled water production in 4 years increased by 30.5% - up to 30.6 billion liters. In 2020, the volume of production in monetary terms increased to 1.06 trillion rubles (+8.9% compared to 2019), the volume of shipments - up to 561.2 billion rubles (+7.4%). At the same time, not all manufactured products go on sale: in 2020, the volume of production in physical terms increased by 3.6%, and shipments - only by 2.2%.

Due to the increase in sales in the domestic market, the export of bottled water from Russia is decreasing every year. So, in 2020, it decreased by 13.5% and amounted to 3.72 billion liters. However, in monetary terms, the indicator continues to grow annually by an average of 35%. In 2020, it reached 12.4 billion rubles.

The import of bottled water to Russia has been growing steadily since 2017, but in 2020, due to a decrease in purchasing power, the share of imported products began to decline (-5.1% compared to 2019).

The average price for 1 liter of bottled water in Russia increased by 11.1% - from 31.29 rubles in 2017 to 34.75 rubles in 2020. The export price remains the lowest. In 2020, it amounted to 3.36 rubles. Imported products are traditionally more expensive than domestic counterparts, mainly niche products. In 2020, their average price was 38.83 rubles.

Raising the cost, by an average of 3 rubles per 1 liter, made it possible to maintain and even increase (+2.5% compared to 2019) monetary indicators for imports, despite falling demand.

In general, the price of bottled water is maintained at about the same level, which allows the market to maintain the same sales volumes. Consumers are very sensitive to the cost of bottled water, few of them are willing to overpay for expensive branded goods, while small and medium-sized enterprises are trying to reduce the prices of their products.

In 2020, the largest market share (55.7%) was occupied by the category of “drinking water, including carbonated water (without sugar and aromatic additives)”. The volume of consumption amounted to 15.1 million liters. The second most popular place is occupied by “mineral natural drinking water” - 38% or 10.3 million liters.

These two categories account for 93.7% of the total market. The remaining product categories occupy narrow niches. For example, the share of water for baby food in 2020 did not exceed 1%.

The positive growth dynamics suggest that the market is recovering quickly after the start of the pandemic and will continue to grow in the future. According to forecasts, by 2024 the market volume will reach 27.53 billion liters. Most of the growth will come from domestic production and consumption. In monetary terms, the annual growth will be 4% and by 2024 will reach 1.24 trillion rubles. The cost of 1 liter of bottled water will be in the range of 40-45 rubles.