Russian alcohol supply crisis: System outage stalls deliveries
In Russia, the alcohol production and turnover control system (EGAIS) has failed significantly. For several days, vendors have been unable to accept deliveries. As a result, alcohol supplies are dwindling in many regions of the country, including Moscow.
On Wednesday, March 25, the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Market Regulation Service (RATK) issued a statement. It stated that "due to a power outage, there may be delays in registering documents in the EGAIS system over the next 5 hours".
However, the technical issues remain unresolved. An employee of one of the companies involved in alcohol distribution explained to "The Moscow Times" that most of the documents sent to the system have not been processed due to the failure. In Krasnoyarsk, he witnessed how his partner's bar could not sell alcohol because of the outage. But the problems are nationwide in Russia.
- On Thursday, there was information that everything was fixed, but this was not true. The situation is worst in the Moscow region and Siberia. The system has been non-operational for three days, and production and sales have come to a halt - the employee told the portal.
On Thursday, the website and email service stopped working. The Association of Alcohol Producers believes that the failure was caused by a hacker attack. However, this information has not been made public. It is still unknown when the failure will be resolved.
The price of vodka in Russia is rising
As of January 1, 2025, the minimum retail price of a half-litre bottle of vodka in Russia increased to 349 rubles. That's an increase of 50 rubles compared to the previous rate of 299 rubles, according to a decree by the Ministry of Finance.
The increase applies not only to retail prices but also to costs at earlier stages of distribution. The minimum sale price by producers has been raised from 246 rubles to 287 rubles, and the wholesale price rose from 256 rubles to 299 rubles for 0.5 litres.
The minimum prices for vodka in Russia have been regulated since 2009 as part of a strategy to combat illegal alcohol production. Raising prices aims to limit the competitiveness of cheap, illegal alcoholic products. The last change in the minimum price occurred in July 2024, when the price was raised from 281 rubles to 299 rubles.
