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Premium spirits to boost global consumption

The soaring popularity of whisky, gin and flavoured spirits is forecasted to enable global spirits consumption to reach a value of US$366 billion in 2022, according to a new report from Vinexpo and IWSR.

Pink gin is one the key trends in spirits

This marks a value increase of 14.9% between from 2017-2022, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8% for the same period. Volume spirits consumption is estimated to hit 3.2 billion nine-litre cases, a 1.2% rise from 2017-2022, with a CAGR of 0.2%.

The data has been released as part of the latest Vinexpo/IWSR wine and spirits report.

Insight from the report shows that ‘local’ spirits categories such as baijiu account for nearly 90% of global spirits consumption, but “international spirits are eroding this share”, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.

Between 2017 and 2022, consumption of imported spirits will grow by 12% to reach 399 million cases globally.

In terms of categories, IWSR and Vinexpo predict that all premium-plus categories – except vodka – will grow over the next five years. In particular, whisky, gin and flavoured spirits are expected to make “big advances”, hitting 65.9m cases, 9.5m cases, and 2.4m cases respectively.

As the ‘drinking less but better’ trend continues, value growth is expected to significantly outperform volume. However, according to IWSR, consumption of pure alcohol is set to rise, suggesting drinkers are moving from wine and beer into spirits.

For wine, value growth is also forecast to outperform volume across all regions, reaching US$207bn by 2022 (2.7bn cases).

The IWSR/Vinexpo research predicts that the US will “inch forward” as the world’s most valuable wine market, while China will overtake France as the second most valuable market by 2020.

UK findings

The report also sheds some light on the UK market for spirits, which is set to record “steady growth” in the five years to 2022.

Gin’s “phenomenal rise” is forecast to continue, boosted by pink variants, and will enable the category to grow by 12.8% to 8.5m cases as it takes share from vodka, which is expected to reach 7.9m cases.

Mezcal is “likely to grow faster than Tequila”, the report claims, while “top-end” blended Scotch whiskies are expected to benefit from producers’ efforts to change consumer perceptions.

Industry members can find out more about the trends affecting the global spirits industry at the upcoming Vinexpo Bordeaux show, which will take place on 13-16 May 2019.

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