Alcoholic beverages prices stable over six months

Consumers of club beer, star beer, Guinness, Castle Milk Stout and Smirnoff Ice have been enjoying relatively stable prices since January, according to bar owners at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region.

They said though prices per crate had been fluctuating at insignificant margins, price per bottle sold to consumers had been steady for over six months now, in spite of hikes in petroleum products and transport fares.

Mr Kwame Aggiri, Solomon Nkansah and Kofi Nyame, Beer Bar owners in Amasaman told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), when the Agency sought to find out the impact of the increase in petroleum products and transport fares on alcoholic drinks in the course of the year.

According to the beer bar owners, a crate of Guinness which contains 24 bottles had marginally increased from around GHc39.50 in 2012 to about GHc44.00 in 2013, but a bottle sold to consumers was at GHc3.00 as at January.

However, they said a crate of Club beer, Star beer, Castle Milk Stout and Smirnoff ice had moved from just about GHc28.00 in 2012 to approximately GHc35.00 in 2013, with price per bottle standing at GHc3.00 since January.

The bar owners said the most patronized drinks are Club beer, Guinness and Star beer and added that consumers’ preferences were largely dependent on taste, brand name, quantum in the bottle and the environment in which the drinks were sold.

They said while men were mostly into drinking beers, women least patronized them, but when they did they bought Smirnoff ice.