The alcoholic beverages market was growing in 2016, with spirits imports registering positive growths in both value and volume in November for the first time since March, according to China Association for Imports and Export of Wine & Spirits.
The growth recorded in imported spirits was largely a result of the wine fairs come from that period. China imported more than 6 million liters of spirits worth US$110 million that month, representing a 41.8% increase in volume and a 77.9% increase in value compared with November 2015.
According to the trade association, Brandy in particular, had a powerful growth in both volume and value terms.
The wine imports were also significant. Total imports amounted to over 570.0m liters worth about US$2.12 billion.
Bottled wine: US$1.97bn – increase of 18.3%
Bulk wine: US$96.4m – increase of 13.13%
Sparkling wine: US$51.24m – decrease of 9.47%
The Top Importers where: France, Chile and Australia, accounting for over 80% of the total value for all bottled wine imports in China, followed by Spain, Italy, Argentina,Portugal,South Africa, , New Zealand, Germany, Georgia, Canada and the US
Georgia, among all the countries, registered the highest growth from January to November, with a 113.28% hike in value to US$11.2m over the same period in 2015.
The country’s beer imports grew by 18.65% in volume to 598.5m litres; its total value also jumped 14.48% to US$616.5m compared with the same period in 2015. Imports from the UK grew more than 350% during the period to US$12.4m, the highest among all countries.
In total, China imported over 50.00 million liters of spirits worth around US$760.00m from January to November 2016, which means a 0.42% increase in volume and 1.21% jump in value compared with 2015 same period.
