Drinks analyst IWSR says that Asia will remain key to long-term growth, despite the current well-documented slowdown in China and other emerging markets – while Europe is set to contract.

 

By volume, China and India are forecast to see the biggest increases between 2013 and 2019 (see table below and click to enlarge), but in terms of percentage growth, India, Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) will all outstrip China with growth rates of +18.8%, +8.5% and +40.3% respectively.

 

“Asia remains the key region for the long-term development of the global alcohol market,” says IWSR. The analyst’s Forecast Report 2014-2019 indicates that Asia is expected to see the largest volume increase of any region across the beer, wine, spirits and mixed drinks categories.

 

EUROPEAN CONTRACTION

Total yearly consumption is set to surge by almost 1.2bn nine-litre cases by 2019. By contrast, consumption in Europe is projected to contract by 27.2m cases over this time, a result of the steady decline in both the beer and wine categories.

 

China and India together will account for a rise of 120.5m cases in yearly spirits consumption between 2013 and 2019. The US is the only non-Asian market to appear in the top five largest growth markets for spirits in this period.

 

Local spirits (including national spirits such as baijiu, as well as local whisky and brandy) will continue to drive much of the expansion within Asia, although many markets are also showing an interest in imported products.

 

Meanwhile, local brands are forecast to increase with a steady compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of +1%, and imported spirits are set to grow with a CAGR of +3.8% between 2013 and 2019, an increase of 8.7m cases.