On February 25, the day after the official outbreak of war in Ukraine, the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard announced the withdrawal of Russian products from the SAQ, which means a dozen items, most of which are vodkas.
And while this decision is above all a symbolic and political gesture, some would have expected to see an increase in sales of Quebec vodka. However, there is no indication of a marked increase in popularity among spirits producers.
“On my product, I don’t see any positive impact yet,” says the founder of Bold Vodka, Mathieu Bélanger. The three-year-old brand has seen growth with the pandemic, but it’s still too early to see if the war in Ukraine will have an impact, he says. “It’s not easy to quantify. Maybe in a few weeks. »
Same echo from Mathieu Caron, president and co-founder of Aupale, a Quebec distillery: “We are still waiting to see an impact in terms of sales in Quebec, but for the moment, it is quite stagnant. »
These testimonials are consistent with the data received by the SAQ. “It is too early to speak of an impact on Quebec vodka sales. […] Currently, we are not seeing any significant growth for this category,” says company spokesperson Linda Bouchard.
According to Mathieu Bélanger, this is explained by the fact that “the number of Russian products [à la SAQ] was not extremely high. In fact, “Russian vodkas represent 2% of the market share in the vodka category,” says Linda Bouchard.
“People think that because it has a Slavic or Russian name, the products come from there, but no. Many are distributed by countries bordering Russia,” adds Mathieu Bélanger.
International influence
“On our side, it has rather had an impact at the international level,” said Mathieu Caron, who reported the interest of certain foreign distributors.
“The desire not to buy Russian products leads to discussions to which we might not have had access before”, indicates the president of Aupale, while his brand will soon be distributed in various European cities and United States. The company’s sales have increased by 400% over the past two weeks in our neighbor to the south, but also in western Canada.
“I think the impact will be much bigger internationally than here, because the quantity of Russian products was much greater as these are often free markets”, explains Mathieu Bélanger, currently on a business trip to the United States.
According to him, the supply monopoly present in Quebec may be detrimental to the impact that this measure could have had on Quebec products. That said, Mathieu Bélanger believes that it is above all the big brands already known internationally that will benefit from this boycott, “but the future will tell us. »
In addition, another strategy, just as symbolic, could have been put in place by the government of François Legault. The latter could have taken the example of certain bars in British Columbia which have chosen to keep their Russian vodka, but to double the price. The owners of these drinking establishments have signed an agreement to donate 100% of their sales of Russian drinks to a Ukrainian relief fund.
A similar initiative would have been orchestrated in the United States according to Mathieu Bélanger. A few companies reportedly doubled the price of their Russian vodka, giving the difference to Ukrainian organizations. A way not to store the alcohol to possibly put it back on the shelf.