Wine sales in Asia Pacific surge, but spirits and cider record larger growth
The value of the wine market in the Asia Pacific region surged by nearly 7% last year to $43.3bn, on volumes that inched up by 0.4% to over 1019 million nine-litre cases, and 6.7% in value to $43.3bn.
However, this growth in wine not as great as that recorded other alcohol categories, including spirits, which were up in value by 16.1% , or cider which grew by almost 11%.
This is amid a backdrop of the overall alcohol retail market in Asia Pacific leaping by nearly 10% despite total consumption dipping.
Still wine volumes fell by 1.1% overall, a drop of 2.9 million cases while falls in local Chinese grape wine consumption outstripping the strong growth of imported still wine into China. This is according to the latest data from the IWSR, which reveals that the total retail alcohol market in the region grew by 9.8% in 2017, while consumption slid by 0.6%, representing a decline of over 63 million nine litre cases.
Four of the top five most valuable markets in the region – China, India, Australia and South Korea – all recorded value growth, despite volume losses in the top four, namely China, Japan, India and Australia. Only South Korea experienced both volume and value growth.
The IWSR attributed the volume declines in the Asia Pacific region to the continuing decline in beer consumption in China. Japan, the second largest beer market in Asia is also experiencing a decline and is set to be leapfrogged by Vietnam in the coming years.
Spirits consumption was up by 0.2% (3.4m cases) in volumes terms and 16.1% in value, with baijiu in China, by far the largest spirits category in the region, accounting for most of this increase, and Japan and Burma making the next-largest contributions with strong growth in local whiskies.
Meanwhile the mixed drinks market grew by 1.2% in volume and 4.4% in value thanks to the huge and burgeoning Japanese RTD market as younger consumers continue to shift away from beer.
Beer was the only major alcohol category to lose ground in the Asia Pacific dropping by 1.1% in total (a drop of 2.9m cases