Lithuania's breweries are raising sales of beer in plastic PET containers, with sales of these products forecast to account for one-third of the total beer sales this year - according to a report from the Baltic News Service.
Sales of beer in PET containers have grown almost threefold over the past two years and now account for 20 to 30 per cent, according to the data provided by the Lithuanian Brewers' Association.
In the first half of this year, the country's twelve breweries, members of the association, sold a total of 121.46 million litres of beer, of which 105.08 million litres was in cans, glass and PET containers.
"The PET market is growing at the fastest rate in the packaging market. It emerged as a type of packaging used by small breweries and now plastic containers are used by all the members of the association, except for the brewery Svyturys," Valdas Vidzys, president of the Brewers' Association, told BNS.
He said the installation of the PET container line did not require large investments, and beer in these containers was most popular among lower-income consumers.
It is believed, however, that the introduction of pollution tax from early 2003 will have an impact on beer sales in PET containers.
"The charge for each two-litre container that is put on the market will be raised by 0.17 litres, which will slow down sales of beer in plastic containers," Vidzys said.