Cigarettes are still the most developed segment on the consumer goods market, raking in sales worth 1.35bn euros during the June/July 2006-April/May 2007 period, up 20% against the same period of 2006, in line with a survey conducted by the Nielsen market research firm.
Sales of still drinks (with a low fruit content) rose by 45% during the June 2006-May 2007 period against the June 2005-May 2006 period; almost twice the rate registered by the segment of carbonated juices, in line with Nielsen data.
The weight of around 40-45% carbonated drinks hold within the overall soft drinks market is above the percentages of the more developed markets of the EU towards which domestic consumption is heading, which is why players are focusing on the segment of natural non-carbonated juices, on which the largest number of launches have been registered in the past year.
According to Nielsen, mineral water registered a 33% sales increase during the above-mentioned period. Moreover, in July of this year, the volume of bottled mineral water surged by over 10 million litres month-on-month, to over 130 million litres, in line with data from water sources owned by SNAM (Mineral Waters National Company) and exploited by the biggest market players.
Overall, the market of non-alcoholic drinks expanded by over 30% during the June/July 2006-April/May 2007 period against the previous interval.
The producer of Biborteni water grounds the growth of the soft drinks market on the high temperatures recorded this year.
The company expects the market to grow at a more moderate rate in the coming years compared with the mineral water market.
The biggest increases on the consumer goods market over the past 12 months were registered for Romanian pressed cheese (58.2%), non-carbonated soft drinks (45.2%) and brandy (38.7%).
The sales increase of Romanian pr
