Mexican beer continues to show impressive growth, Americans drink more tequila than any other nation

Over the last 40 years, IWSR has built up the world’s largest database on the beverage alcohol market. It claims to understand the market, category and brand performances of products in 157 countries across the world using local market input. Occasionally, IWSR releases market reports, and occasionally we run those market reports because we find them interesting and insightful. Here’s one right now!

Though Cinco de Mayo is not generally recognized in Mexico as a major holiday, it’s become quite a popular occasion in the United States, helping drive the growth of tequila, mezcal and Mexican beer. According to research from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, the leading source of data and intelligence on the alcoholic beverage market, consumption of agave-based spirits was up about 9 percent in the United States last year, and the leading eight brands of Mexican beer posted a combined CAGR of more than 10 percent over the past five years. And as May 5 falls during a weekend this year, that will only help fuel this upward trend.

The United States is the top market in the world for tequila, and agave-based spirits are one of the fastest-growing drinks categories in the country. Mezcal consumption in the U.S. was up 32.4 percent last year, posting the largest gain among all spirits (albeit up from a relatively small base, to 261,000 nine-liter cases in 2018). Tequila was up 8.5 percent. Collectively, the agave-based spirits category is forecasted to grow by 4 percent CAGR through 2022, which places it within close striking distance to soon overtake rum volume in the United States.

The picture is similar with Mexican imported beer, which outperformed all other segments within the beer industry in 2018. The top eight Mexican beer brands collectively added 11.3m hectoliters to the beer market last year and are quickly gaining on their domestic competitors.

“Beer brands such as Modelo and Corona have shown impressive growth over the past several years, and are quickly gaining on their domestic competitors. And of course, the margarita — always a favorite on Cinco de Mayo — has long dominated as one of the most popular cocktails in America,” said Brandy Rand, U.S. president of IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

Globally, tequila is forecasted to grow 2.5 percent CAGR from 2018 to 2022. In addition to the United States, the largest gains are expected in Australia, China, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States.