Alcohol, Analytics, Estonia, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The ratio of respondents who obtain cheaper booze from Latvia at least once every month is 5.4%.

As expected, residents of South Estonia are most likely to buy their alcohol on the other side of the border, with 55.2% of South Estonians having done it in 2017. One in five residents of South Estonia obtain alcohol from Latvia on a regular basis at least once every month, the outcome of the poll commissioned by Postimees indicates.

According to Aivar Voog, survey expert at Kantar Emor, in broad terms it can be said that at least four in five residents of Estonia are buyers of alcohol. "The share of those buying alcohol in Latvia has almost doubled compared with the same time last year, and a little less than one-third of the population have come into contact with it this year. True, the majority of them are people who happened to be in Latvia once or twice and didn't shun the opportunity to buy alcohol to take home then," Voog said.

In the estimate of consumers, alcohol obtained in Latvia makes up 15% of the total amount of alcohol bought by residents of Estonia. "A rapid increase can be noted here, as in last August the ratio according to the estimates of consumers was just 6%," Voog said.

"Judging by consumer attitudes, a rapid waning of cross-border trade cannot be expected. Rather the opposite, alongside an increase in the number of purchases openness to purchasing in Latvia is on an upward trend too," Voog said. He added that according to the latest survey, effectively half of Estonian residents are ready to obtain alcohol from Latvia.

In the border region alcohol brought by residents across the border makes up 40%, which in Voog's words can be viewed as a remarkable ratio.