The Scotch Whisky Association has announced that more than 807 million bottles of Scotch whisky were shipped abroad during the first nine months of 2009.
“The first quarter of last year was terrible,” said Campbell Evans, the SWA’s director of government & consumer affairs. “The second and third quarters came back up to 2008 levels and the last quarter can only be better that the last quarter of 2008. This Christmas looks likely to be good,” he told Drinks International.
Values were down 3.5% on the previous industry record in 2008, reaching £2.11 billion, the scotch industry’s second best export value performance at the end of September.
Top 10 export markets by volume
(January – September, millions of 70cl bottles
2009 % change
France 126.8 +9
US 86.9 +6
Spain 56.4 -26
Singapore 38.9 +7
South Africa 37.9 +17
Venezuela 37.7 +94
Brazil 33.4 +70
Australia 26.3 +12
South Korea 26.1 -16
Germany 25.0 -11
Total exports 807.5 +1.5
Top 10 export markets by value
(January – September, £million)
2009 % change
France 297.2 +16
US 267.7 -2
Spain 190.9 -19
Singapore 108.7 -20
Venezuela 100.9 +83
Greece 80.1 -6
South Korea 74.8 -34
South Africa 74.7 +4
Germany 71.4 -9
Taiwan 64.2 +18
Total exports 2,109.1 -3.5
Source: HM Revenue & Customs data based in individual company declarations of export value and volume of shipments to each market
