Romania's soft-drinks industry has reduced the caloric content of its products by 25% between 2000 and 2024, the president of the National Association for Soft Drinks (ANBR) Alice Nichita said on Friday at the launch of a study on the sector's socio-economic impact. "Our sector committed to consciously reducing sugars," Alice Nichita said, noting that reformulation and product innovation drove the reduction.
She added that the industry has pledged to maintain "responsible marketing", stressing that companies "never advertise to children under 13" and follow strict rules in schools. The ANBR head also highlighted voluntary commitments not to promote soft drinks directly to children.
According to ANBR, Romania introduced a sugar excise on soft drinks in 2024 and increased it in 2025, despite soft-drink sugar accounting for roughly 3% of an adult's daily caloric intake.
The study, conducted with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, shows the soft-drinks and bottled-water industry contributes over 0.6% of Romania's GDP and is the largest employer in the national beverages sector, with around 10,000 workers. The industry generates about 1 billion RON annually in direct taxes, while exports of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages exceeded 2 billion RON în 2024, Agerpres informs.
Fiscal pressures in 2023 - 2024, including higher VAT and the sugar excise, led to a 7.2% drop in employment and a 2.6% decline in real turnover. Soft-drink prices rose by 32.5% in the same period, significantly above the increase in food prices (17.6%) and overall consumer prices (16.2%).
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