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ALCOHOL

Systembolaget goes local

Sweden's state-run alcohol retail monopoly Systembolaget has responded to demand for more locally-produced items by extending its range to promote small-scale producers from the turn of the year.

Systembolaget goes local

“Interest and demand for small-scale and locally produced alcoholic drinks has increased significantly over the past few years… It is therefore natural for us to now offer our customers across the country and improved service for these products,” Systembolaget CEO Magdalena Gerger said in a company statement on Tuesday.

Systembolaget, which operates a chain of over 400 stores countrywide, plans to make it easier to find and purchase local produce.

“This is a way for us to meet the increased demand of our customers… It could also contribute to raising interest for locally-produced food and drink,” Magdalena Gerger said.

Gerger underlined that the state-owned firm’s new local produce initiative will be made “within Systembolaget’s framework for responsible alcohol sales”.

The firm has defined locally produced as “wines, beers, cider and spirits produced in limited volumes at, for example, ‘farms’ in Sweden” and which do not feature in the chain’s regular assortment of products.

Systembolaget has also specified that the promotion also extends to products in “local demand” which could mean that specific stores stock products in particular high demand by their customers, regardless of country of origin.

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ALCOHOL

Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 

More than one in ten Spaniards drink alcohol every day, making them the Europeans who drink most regularly after the Portuguese, new Eurostat data reveals. 

Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 
Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Thirteen percent of people in Spain drink alcohol every day, a similar rate to Italy, where 12 percent enjoy a tipple on a daily basis, and only behind Portugal, where 20 percent of people have an alcoholic drink seven days a week.

That puts Spaniards above the EU average of 8.4 percent daily drinkers, data published by Eurostat in July 2021 reveals. 

This consistent alcoholic intake among Spaniards is far higher than in countries such as Sweden (1.8 percent daily drinkers), Poland (1.6 percent), Norway (1.4 percent), Estonia (1.3 percent) and Latvia (1.2 percent). 

However, the survey that looked at the frequency of alcohol consumption in people aged 15 and over shows that weekly and monthly drinking habits among Spaniards are more in line with European averages. 

A total of 22.9 percent of respondents from Spain said they drunk booze on a weekly basis, 18.3 percent every month, 12.5 percent less than once a month, and 33 percent haven’t had a drink ever or in the last year. 

Furthermore, another part of the study which looked at heavy episodic drinking found that Spaniards are the third least likely to get blind drunk, after Cypriots and Italians.

The Europeans who ingested more than 60 grammes of pure ethanol on a single occasion at least once a month in 2019 were Danes (37.8 percent), Romanians (35 percent), Luxembourgers (34.3 percent) and Germans (30.4 percent). 

The UK did not form part of the study but Ireland is included. 

Overall, Eurostat’s findings reflect how the Spanish habit of enjoying a glass of wine with a meal or a small beer (caña) outdoors with friends continues to be common daily practice, even though 13 percent does not make it prevalent. 

Spaniards’ tendency to drink in moderation also continues to prevail, even though a 2016 study by Danish pharmaceuticals company Lundbeck found that one in six people in the country still drinks too much. 

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