Recent Norwegian figure show that the attitude of the Norwegian alcohol monopoly Vinmonopolet towards beer is of vital importance. In January this year they has a special focus on beer, adding a fine range of domestic and imported beers to their range, giving them prominent shelf space and even a writeup in their in store magazine.
With a ban on all advertising of alcohol, this gives results. Sales of beer in Vinmonopolet were up 43 per cent from January last year to January this year, and this trend has continues in February.
These figures are from one of the biggest dailies, Aftenposten, who found this interesting enough to do a two page spread yesterday. Let’s hope this is the beginning of more beer journalism.
The statistics show that the Christmas beers are dominating the market for stronger beers, but if the current trend continues, we will see more craft beer on the list for 2010.
One thing puzzles me: Why does Singha Lager feature so prominently on the list?
They have also included a table once again showing the price differences between Norway and Sweden. I won’t go into that again today.
Knut Albert's beer blog 