LONDON: According to figures from Scotland's leading industry body, India has surpassed France to become the UK's largest market for Scotch whisky in terms of volume, with imports increasing by 60% in 2022 over the previous year.
According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), India imported 219 million 70cl bottles of Scotch last year, compared to 205 million from France. This indicates that the Indian Scotch market has expanded by more than 200 percent over the past decade.
With a value of 1.1 billion pounds, the United States of America maintained its lead as the largest market. Scotch whisky, one of the UK's largest exports, saw a 37% increase in value to 6.2 billion pounds in total export value.
SWA noted that the increase in volume still only accounts for a small portion of the Indian whisky market due to high tariffs. This is one of the main areas of focus for the UK in the seventh round of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with India.
The association stated on Friday that "despite double-digit growth, Scotch whisky still only comprises 2% of the Indian whisky market." According to SWA analysis, "a UK-India FTA deal that eases the 150 percent tariff burden on Scotch whisky in India could boost market access for Scotland's whisky companies, allowing for an additional one billion pounds of growth over the course of five years."
In 2021, the value of the Indian market for Scotch exports will be 282 million pounds, ranking fifth, behind Singapore, Taiwan, and France. In addition, the Asia-Pacific region overtook the EU as the industry's largest regional market in 2022. In addition to India, Taiwan, Singapore, and China also experienced double-digit post-pandemic growth. "The industry continued to be an anchor of growth in a year of economic headwinds and supply chain disruption," stated SWA chief Mark Kent.