Summer is reaching
its peak and it seems everyone is after a chilled bottle of beer. Wine
dealers, however, are not really excited by the sales in April. Though
beer consumption has increased, they think it is not going up as
expected.Most wine shop owners blame it on the vagaries of
weather- with day temperatures shooting up but nights being somewhat
cooler, in the last month. D Venkateswara Rao, general secretary, Andhra
Pradesh State Wine Dealers Association blamed dual weather conditions
in April for less sales. “The situation might improve in May,” he said.
With the mercury slowly inching over the 40-degree mark and IPL-4
ongoing, beer consumption is likely to rise.Sale of beer
registered an increase of 30 to 40 per cent in April this year as
compared to 2010. “There is an increase in beer consumption in the
Hyderabad division of Excise and Prohibition department,” said TN
Venkataswamy, excise deputy commissioner. He said the department had
earned `1,300 crore up to 2010-11 compared to `1,121 crore in 2009-10,
from sale of beer and liquor. All 212 wine shops located in and around
the city recorded a sale of 70,000 to 80,000 cases of beer in April 2011
compared to 50,000 cases last year. A case contains 12 beer bottles. On
an average, 21 lakh cases of beer are sold in a year in the state. Sale
of Indian Made Foreign Spirit (IMFS) has also gone up by 4 per cent. Venkataswamy
said they have already taken proper measures in supplying all beer
brands to wine shop dealers, to meet the increasing demand in summer.
Existing sales are likely to go up further in the near future, with heat
wave conditions prevailing in the city. Wine dealers expect to cash in
during the hot month of May.
By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com
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