Global alcohol consumption shows modest increase last year
Global alcohol consumption increased very marginally last year, up by a tiny 0.01% compared to 2016.
While that growth may seem barely discernible, it represents a turnaround from the previous year, when consumption declined by 1.25%.
In volume terms, last year’s increase translates to 3.5m nine litre cases compared to 2016, according to the latest data just released by the IWSR. And it was wine that contributed most to the rise in consumption, gaining 12m cases, a 0.5% increase on 2016 when wine consumption was largely stagnant.
Italy, Russia and the US were the top growth markets for still wine, said the IWSR, while the UK and France saw the largest declines. These mature wine markets are losing out to changing trends in drinks choices; cider and sparkling wine growth in the UK offset the decline in still wine consumption, while in France beer consumption rose strongly.
Asia-Pacific and the Americas saw the fastest rises in spirits consumption, while continued growth of baijiu in China was the main contributor to the Asia-Pacific volumes.
Whisky also performed well in the region, adding 2.7m cases between 2016 and 2017 (+1.2%). Similarly, whisky grew by 2.7m cases in the Americas (+3.2%), with vodka adding 1.7m cases (+1.8%).
Agave-based spirits were the best-performing category in the Asia Pacific growing by 5.3%, and adding 1.4m cases.
The CIS was the only region to see a decline in spirits consumption, falling by 7.6% (25.2m cases), due to the decrease of vodka consumption in Russia and Ukraine. Government pressures and generational shifts contribute to these ongoing declines.
Agave-based spirits were the fastest-growing category globally (+5.2%), followed by gin and genever (+4.5%) and whisky (+2%). The US was the largest-growth market for agave-based spirits and whisky, and the UK the largest growth market for gin.
Beer returned to growth in the Americas, led by Mexico and Argentina, despite continued decline in the US. Strong growth in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Europe helped to slow the global decline of beer consumption.
Though cider growth in Europe has slowed, momentum in Africa and the Middle East helped spur a 2.5% global volume increase.
The mixed drinks market meanwhile declined by -1%, led by a slowdown in Asia-Pacific and further category negative trends in the CIS and the Americas.