Economy
Posted: 4 years ago

The Spring and Mineral Water Market – the World and Georgia

In the 21st century, drinking water will be a much more strategic resource than oil and gas, as predicted by UN experts.

According to the UN report,  about 900 million people worldwide have extremely limited access to drinking water, while  more than 2 billion  lack basic sanitary systems.

By 2025, water consumption in developed countries will rise by 50%, and in developing countries by 18%. According to the Human Development World Report 2016, by 2025 about 3 billion people will face a drinking water deficit, and this problem will especially sharpen in China, India, southern Africa and the countries of the Arab Peninsula. Specialists believe that the situation regarding the international market volume of bottled water will exceed 242.35 billion USD.

According to the Global Bottled Water Hydration Market’s Forecast to 2024, the figure in 2018 exceeded 282.54 billion liters. Today, the share of the Asia-Pacific region on the bottled water market accounts for 33%. The markets of Europe and North America, according to 2018 indicators, reached 24 and 93 billion USD, respectively. The world’s key bottled water manufacturers are as follows: Nestle Waters (Perrier, San Pellegrino, Acqua Panna, Vittel) Groupe Danone (Evian, Volvic, Badoit), PepsiCo Inc (Aquafina, SmartWater), The Coca Cola Company (Bonaqua). Along with these companies, the influential players are: Fiji Water (The Wonderful Company) and Voss (Voss of Norway ASA).

The USA is reported to be a key importer of bottled water. A lot of EU countries, as well as  Japan, are major importers. As for exporters: Italy is a leader, France ranks second. Fiji, Norway and Georgia are reported to be important exporters of bottled water. According to the 2016 indicators, in 2016 Georgia ranked 6th in terms of exports (82 million USD). Exporters of bottled water in total volume made up 3.8%. Georgia continuously grows as an exporter of bottled water. In 2018, the country exported 110.2 billion USD of bottled spring and mineral water, up 15% compared to 2017.

As to 2019, in January-February, the number of countries to which Georgian mineral and spring water are exported declined, but the volume of exported products increased.

Unlike 2018, in January-February 2019, mineral and spring water was not exported to Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Switzerland and Poland.

According to Geostat, the national statistics service of Georgia, Georgia’s mineral and spring water exports rose by 31% compared to 2018. The total value of  January-April exports madesources per capita makes up 14,000 cubic meters, while the figure is 9,300 cubic meters in Europe.

e up 40.866 million USD. The Russian Federation remains a key export market for Georgian bottled water. Georgia exported bottled water worth 19.873 million USD to Russia in 2019.

As for spring water resources, there are more than 26,060 rivers and 860 lakes in Georgia and spring water rGeorgia’s underground spring water natural resources are about 1,8000 million cubic meters, and the general forecast of exploitable reserves are about 10,600 million cubic meters.

It is interesting that the highest prices for consumption are recorded in Europe, namely in Germany Denmark – 1.78 USD and 1.72 USD per cubic meter, respectively. Georgia’s water consumption per capita makes up 400 liters on average; in private houses, the volume even exceeds 1000 liters. The price per cubic meter makes up 0.329 GEL.