Beer, Spirits, & Wine – Packaged Imports Growing, Bulk Declining

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

Beer:
Imported beer increased +6.3% by volume and +9.3% by value over the last twelve months and has accelerated over the last three month to up +8.7% by volume and up +9.9% by value. 63% of imports by volume come from Mexico.

Exported beer increased +20.8% by volume and up +13.0% by value over the last twelve months; while the last three months have experienced slight deceleration with +13.5% by volume and +5.9% by value. 40% of exported beer goes to Mexico.

Overall beer imports by volume are 6 times the size of beer exports.

Spirits:
Imported packaged spirits for the last twelve months are up +6.0% by volume and up +2.9% by value.  This is consistent with trends over the past three months where volume is up +6.2% and value up +5.5%.  Imported bulk spirits are not as healthy.  Over the past twelve months, volume is down -4.6% and value is down -3.2%.  These trends have declined further over the past three months with volume down -14.6% and value down -9.7%.  Tequila represents 13.6% of all imported packaged spirits while whiskeys (from all sources) represent 31.9% of all imported bulk spirits.

Exported packaged spirits for the past twelve months are down -1.2% by volume and down -5.7% by value.  Volume trends are similar over the past three months with volume down -1.2% but value  down -13.8%.  Exported bulk spirits for the last twelve months are up +12.6% by volume and up +3.5% by value.  Over the past three months, volume trends have accelerated, up +14.7%, but value has declined, down -9.1%.  The United Kingdom represents 12.2% of all exported packaged spirits while Canada is the destination for 28.4% of all exported bulk spirits.

Wine:
Imported packaged wine is up +6.3% by volume and up +3.8% by value over the past twelve months.  However, this growth has decelerated over the past three months with volume up +1.3% and value up +1.1%. Imported bulk wines for the last twelve months are down -2.0% by volume but up +0.7% by value.  This too has significantly decelerated over the past three months with volume down -32.5% and value down -25.5%.  Imported packaged wine from Italy represents 35% of all packaged imports by volume while Imported bulk wine from Chile represent 31% of all bulk imports by volume.

Exported packaged wine for the last twelve months are down -4.8% by volume but up +2.8% by value.  Over the past three months trends have decelerated with volume down -28.7% and value down -3.7%.  Exported bulk wine for the past twelve months are down -3.9% by volume and down -7.5% by value.  These trends have also decelerated over the past three months with volume down -23.6% and value down -22.5%.  Canada represents 31% of all exported packaged wine and the United Kingdom represents 37% of all exported bulk wine.

Interesting Facts:
For 12 months ending June 2016.  Imported beer from Denmark is up 57% by volume though represent only 0.2% of all imported beer.  Imported packaged wine from Canada is up 83% by volume to 2.2 million cases, entirely driven by Sangria, Coolers and other similar wine types at relatively low prices.  Imported packaged spirits from Japan are up 116% by volume, but still only represent 0.2% of all imported packaged spirits.

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 Beer, Spirits, and Wine.