Systembolaget’s wine sales (*) fell by 1% in 2024 to 206 million litres. (*) = wine excluding fortified wine. This continues the trend since the Covid rush in 2020, when wine sales increased by 9.2%. Since then, it has fallen:
- 2021 -0.6%,
- 2022 -3.4%,
- 2023 -1.4%, and thus
- 2024 -1%.
However, wine sales in 2024 are still higher than before the pandemic, thus 206 million litres compared to 201 M litres in 2019.
Fortified wine is (unfortunately) not as popular today as it was a hundred years ago. In 2024, Systembolaget sold only 3.4 million litres (less than the two best-selling bag-in-box wines taken together!), a decline of 6.4%. The pandemic year 2020 was good for fortified wine (+7.6%), but since then, it has been mostly down, except for 2023, when it increased by 1.5% (what happened in 2023?). Now, fortified wine is down to a lower volume than before the pandemic.
Spirits sold 23.9 million litres in 2024 (-1.1%), and beer 296 million litres.
Converted to pure alcohol, sales were 53.3 million litres in 2024, unchanged since 2023 but still significantly higher than before the pandemic, 49.5 M litres in 2019.
Apparently, the monopoly does not always have the effect that is hoped for – lowering the consumption.
