Based on figures launched by the Scotch Whisky Affiliation (SWA), the worth of exports final 12 months rose 37% to £6.2bn, with volumes growing by 21% to the equal of 1.67bn 70cl bottles. That equates to 53 bottles of Scotch being exported each second, up from 44 per second in 2021.
Boosted by the partial easing of provide chain constraints and corporations adapting to the post-Brexit buying and selling panorama within the European Union (EU), exports have been effectively forward of pre-pandemic 2019, when 1.31bn bottles of Scotch value a complete of £4.91bn have been shipped abroad.
All of Scotch whisky’s prime 10 most profitable export locations recorded double-digit development in 2022, spearheaded by the US (+33% to £1.05bn), which recovered from the Trump administration’s imposition of a 25% tariff on imports of single malt to regain its standing as Scotch’s solely billion-pound market.
Outstanding development in India noticed that nation overtake France as Scotch whisky’s main abroad market in quantity phrases. Volumes there rose 60% to 219m bottles in 2022, and have grown by over 200% over the previous decade.
That efficiency helped to raise the Asia-Pacific area above the EU as Scotch whisky’s largest regional market by worth. Though established markets comparable to France, Germany and Spain continued their post-Covid restoration, resulting in a 17% enhance for the EU as a complete, Asia-Pacific was up 50% in 2022 to £1.82bn, because of double-digit development for Taiwan, Singapore, India and China.
Bottled blended Scotch – which has seen its market share eroded by single malt in recent times – bounced again strongly final 12 months, with exports up 43% to £3.67bn, or 59% of worldwide exports. Single malts have been up 30% to £1.99bn, or 32% of complete exports.
‘Passing £6bn in export worth for the primary time is a milestone, and testomony to the work of our member firms and the tens of 1000’s of workers throughout Scotland and the UK provide chain who make Scotch whisky a worldwide success story of which we’re rightly proud,’ stated Mark Kent, SWA chief government.
‘In 2022, the trade benefited from the total re-opening of hospitality companies in key international markets, in addition to the return of worldwide journey retail, which opens such an necessary window for Scotch whisky to enterprise and leisure travellers.’
The SWA highlighted robust development for bulk exports of blended malt Scotch whisky to India – the phase’s largest abroad market – in addition to a premiumisation pattern in Latin America, the place worth grew forward of quantity in 2022.
Prospects in India could possibly be even brighter within the years forward, the SWA added. The nation is the world’s largest whisky market, however presently Scotch whisky has a market share of solely 2%. If a UK-India free commerce settlement (FTA) have been to ease the nation’s crippling 150% tariff burden on imports of Scotch whisky, SWA evaluation means that a further £1bn of development could possibly be secured over the following 5 years.
