Packaged Imports Continue Growth Over Last Twelve Months, Wine Has Softened in Past Quarter

On Wednesday, October 5th  import and export data for beverage alcohol was made available through August 2016. Top line results are as follows:

Beer:

The bw166 Beer – Imports and Exports Report shows imported beer increased +7.7% by volume and +9.8% by value over the last twelve months. Over the last three months imports are up +5.0% by volume and up +4.5% by value. 65.1% of imports by volume come from Mexico.

Exported beer increased +9.6% by volume and +6.0% by value over the last twelve months. The last three months have seen material weakness with declines of -14.3% by volume and -10.9% by value. 38.4% of exported beer goes to Mexico.

Overall beer imports by volume are 6.2 times the size of beer exports.

Spirits:

The bw166 Spirits – Imports and Exports Report shows imported packaged spirits for the last twelve months are up +5.0% by volume and +3.8% by value.  Volume trends are fairly similar the past three months, 3.2% by volume but are up 4.0% by value.  Imported bulk spirits are not as healthy.  Over the past twelve months, volume is down -1.4% and value is down -3.9%.  These trends have declined further over the past three months with volume down -7.3% and value down -17.4%.  Whiskeys (from all sources) represents 26.1% of all imported packaged spirits while whiskeys (from all sources) represent 30.8% of all imported bulk spirits.

Exported packaged spirits for the past twelve months are up slightly by volume +1.4% but is down -5.3% by value.  Volume trends are similar over the past three months with volume up +3.1% and value -6.4%.  Exported bulk spirits for the last twelve months are up +11.9% by volume but only +4.4% by value.  Over the past three months volume trends have accelerated slightly, up +3.1%, but value has declined, down -6.4%.  The United Kingdom represents 10.9% of all exported packaged spirits while 23.6% of all exported bulk spirits is destined for Canada.

Wine:

The bw166 Wine – Imports and Exports Report shows imported packaged wine is up +5.1% by volume and +3.6% by value over the past twelve months. This growth has softened over the past three months with volume only up +0.4% and value -1.1%. Imported bulk wines for the last twelve months are down -1.1% by volume and down -2.7% by value.  The volume has recovered over the past 3 months +22.4% but value is still off-1.7%.  Imported packaged wine from Italy represents 35.1% of all packaged imports by volume while imported bulk wine from Chile represent 34.1% of all bulk imports by volume.

Exported packaged wine for the last twelve months is down -9.1% by volume but is up +2.1% by value.  Over the past three months trends have decelerated by volume down -16.6% but value is up +4.9%.  Exported bulk wine for the past twelve months is down -4.4% by volume and -2.4% by value.  These trends are similar over the past three months with volume down -4.1% and value -6.1%.  Canada represents 31.1% of all exported packaged wine and the United Kingdom represents 38.9% of all exported bulk wine.

To be able to track Beverage Alcohol imports and exports on a monthly basis for volume, value in USD, and value in local currency for all major trading countries, please see the bw166 Import and Export reports for BeerSpirits, and Wine.