Mineral waters defy cold season

Even though the beginning of the year was cold, the mineral water consumption has slightly increased in Q1 compared with the same time last year. Output in Q1 reached 185 million litres, compared with 181 million litres in 2002, according to the statistics of the National Mineral Waters Company (SNAM).
SNAM general manager Peter Elek feels the same trend, i.e. the 2%-3% growth, will also be registered for the entire year.
A trend that started to take shape as early as two years ago was confirmed by the results at the end of last year – the increase in the production and therefore in the consumption of still mineral water, Elek says.
Still, the still mineral water in Q1 did not keep up with the level in Q1 last year.
Out of the 185 million litres bottled in the first three months, still mineral water accounted for only 51.2 million litres, that is 27.6%, while the sparkling mineral water accounted for 72.3%. As a comparison, Q1, 2002 saw 56.2 million litres of still mineral water bottled, 31.6% of the total 181 million.
“The still mineral water consumption went up last year, but tradition is rather difficult to change. The Romanians are accustomed to drinking sparkling waters, especially when they go with wine.”
Both production and consumption of mineral water have increased over the last few years.
The SNAM 2002 statistics show the natural mineral water production in Romania was of 839 million litres, nearly 10% more than in 2001, when it reached 765 million litres.
Consumption has gone up from 33.3 litres per capita in 2001 to 36.5 litres per capita in 2002. Back in 1990 people used to drink only 9.1 litres a year each.
Still, if compared with the European average, the consumption of mineral waters per capita in Romania is lagging far behind, as consumption in the EU member countries amounts to approximately 100 litres per capita.
claudia.covaci@zf.ro