Wine Sales in Canada up!

From Yahoo News:

Wine accounted for 29 per cent of the dollar value of alcoholic beverages sold in Canada last year, up 11 per cent from where it stood in 1993 and a whopping 92 per cent from 1976 levels, Statistics Canada figures released Tuesday suggest.

Red and rose wines are particularly popular, accounting for 64 per cent of all national wine sales, StatsCan reported.

Beer still remains Canada’s beverage of choice, claiming 46 per cent of the country’s booze market, but the numbers show its popularity having sagged over the past 16 years.

The shifting national tastes are in part the result of Canada’s ever-broadening tastes, said Chris Layton, a spokesman for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

In litres of absolute alcohol – pure alcohol, free of water – the agency says the volume of sales of alcoholic beverages increased 1.6 per cent to 226.4 million litres.

But while beer by far remained the most popular alcoholic beverage in terms of both volume and dollar value, StatsCan says its market share declined.

In 1993, beer peaked at 53 per cent of dollar sales and wine accounted for 18; by 2009, the market share of beer had declined to 46 per cent, while wine had captured 29.

Beer stores and agencies sold 2.3 billion litres of beer in 2009, a 0.9 per cent increase from the previous year. Per-capita beer sales have dropped 28 per cent from their peak of 115.2 litres in 1976 to 83.5 litres in 2009.

The growth in sales volume of imported beer continued to outpace that of domestic products. The volume of imported beer sold increased 7.8 per cent in 2009, while domestic beer sales stayed the same.

By volume, imported beer has more than doubled its market share in the last decade. In 2009, imported beer had captured 13 per cent of the beer market in Canada, up from six per cent in 1999.

Layton said the numbers reflect a growing demand for quality and consumers who are becoming more adventurous in their beer choices.

“You will see people moving from larger-selling brands to the premium-style brands,” he said. “What we’ve seen, interestingly enough, is not only increased sales of imported beers but also in craft beers.”

That may also be partially driven by demographics, he added.

Baby boomers with money to spend are more willing to invest their spare dollars in exotic beers and wines that may have been beyond their means in their younger days, Layton said.

The agency says the net income recorded by liquor authorities, combined with other alcohol-related revenue such as liquor licences and permits, reached $5.4 billion in 2009, up 3.6 per cent.

Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Nova Scotia reported the largest increases.

Liquor stores and agencies sold $4.9 billion worth of spirits during the year ending March 31, 2009, up 2.9 per cent from the previous year. This gain was due mainly to a 5.6 per cent increase in vodka sales.

The volume of sales of spirits decreased 0.2 per cent in 2009 to 210.3 million litres.

Original article can be found here.