Last year Portuguese shoppers consumed an average of 108.1 litres of bottled water, compared to only 40 litres of soft drinks, according to the latest data from Nielsen.
In 2015, the amount of soft drinks consumed was much higher, with a figure of 68.3 litres per person.
Although the levy on high-sugar drinks was introduced in Portugal in February 2017, the increasing difference between the amount of bottled water and soft drinks consumed has been present since at least 2011, reports Dinheiro Vivo.
Consumer Trends
Nielsen’s Ana Raquel Santos said that although high-sugar drinks continue to lose sales in value and volume, the downward pace of the category slowed down last year, but without reversing the trend.
However, this is not isolated to Portugal. Last year in the US, for example, bottled water consumption (148.8 litres per capita) surpassed that of soft drinks (145.7 litres per capita) for the first time.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
