It’s time to drink a toast. India has become the world’s largest market for Scotch whisky, shooting far past France which, despite its love for wine, has been the global champion whisky-drinking nation for over a decade.

Around 219 million bottles of Scotch were shipped to India in 2022 – and presumably most were consumed. France, which had always held the whisky-drinking crown, has been left in the shade and imported 205 million bottles.

India’s claims the top title even though Scotch whisky is only 2 per cent of India’s total whisky market, the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) noted.

There was a massive 60 per cent hike in imports in 2022 by India over the previous year, the association said.

Scotch whisky sales have shot to these heights even though every bottle faces customs and other duties of between 150 per cent to 195 per cent.

The reduction of duties on Scotch whisky is one of the main negotiating issues in the India-UK trade talks which are said to be nearing completion.

Speculation is that if the deal does come through that gives a break to the Scotch whiskey industry, customs duties could come down to around 100 per cent. This would bring Scotch whisky within reach for many more users and boost sales enormously.

India’s Scotch whisky consumption has risen very sharply even through the Covid-19 years. In 2019, just 131 million bottles of Scotch whisky were exported to India. The volume of Scotch whisky exports to India have rocketed by more than 200 per cent in the last decade.

India has a strong local whisky-making industry which in earlier decades had blocked reduced duties on Scotch whisky.

But the whisky association said it reckons that a free-trade agreement with India that eased “the 150% tariff burden on Scotch Whisky in India could boost market access for Scotland’s whisky companies” substantially. It projects a deal favouring the Scottish industry could allow “for an additional POUND STERLING 1 billion of growth over the next five years.”

One estimate is that if tariffs were lowered, Scotch whisky could increase its market share to 6 per cent. The association argues this would give more consumers the chance to access Scotch while simultaneously allowing Indian whiskies to retain a dominant share of the market.

India is the biggest, but not the only market, where Scotch whisky sales are booming. In 2022 Asia overtook Europe for Scotch whisky consumption. The whisky association notes there was, “double-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular in Taiwan, Singapore, India and China.”

In 2022, Scotch whisky exports added up to around $7.5 billion, making it one of the UK’s top exports. About 33 per cent of the Scotch whisky market is in North America.

Whisky giants like Diageo and Pernod Ricard see India as a vast market with gigantic potential for growth.

Overall, Scotch exports around the world posted solid growth in 2022, with the US retaining its top position as the largest market by value at POUND STERLING 1.05 billion. The total export value of Scotch whisky soared 37 per cent by value to POUND STERLING 6.2 billion.

The association says the equivalent of 53 bottles of Scotch Whisky are exported every second – up from 44 per second in 2021. Bottled blended Scotch whisky represents 59 per cent of value exports while Single Malt accounts for 32 per cent of all Scotch whisky exports by value.

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