The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) recently released its annual global export data for 2024, and the numbers paint a mixed portrait of the industry.
In 2024, Scotch whisky exports were valued at 5.4 billion pounds (6.8 billion dollars), a 3.7 percent decrease from 2023. While value took a dive, exports by volume increased by 3.9 percent in 2024, jumping from approximately 1.35 billion bottles shipped in 2023 to over 1.4 billion. While both measurements have fluctuated since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when 2019 is taken as a baseline, the industry has increased in value by 10 percent and in volume by 7 percent overall.
In the United States, which has long been Scotch’s largest market by value, exports were up 3.7 percent year-over-year in 2024, exceeding $1.2 billion. That’s over twice the value of Scotch exported to France, the category’s second-largest market by value. Rounding out the top three most valuable Scotch markets is Singapore, though excitement for the whisky in the country could be waning as value fell by almost 18 percent last year alone.
By volume, India is the largest market for Scotch with over 192 million bottles of the stuff exported last year, a 14.6 percent increase year-over-year. In the past five years, India has become an incredibly important outlet for the Scotch whisky industry — exports to the country have increased 46.6 percent since 2019 — even as other markets shrink.
Read on to discover the biggest global markets for Scotch, in terms of both value and volume.
The Top 10 Most Valuable Scotch Markets
| Country | Value |
|---|---|
| The United States | $1,224,433,175 |
| France | $528,359,938 |
| Singapore | $390,910,694 |
| Taiwan | $375,778,667 |
| India | $312,728,667 |
| Spain | $247,156,439 |
| Japan | $229,502,407 |
| Turkey | $224,458,398 |
| Germany | $211,848,376 |
| China | $203,021,360 |
The Top 10 Scotch Markets by Volume
| Country | Volume (in # of 700 ml bottles sold) |
|---|---|
| India | 192,000,000 |
| France | 177,000,000 |
| The United States | 132,000,000 |
| Japan | 74,000,000 |
| Spain | 59,000,000 |
| Germany | 56,000,000 |
| Brazil | 52,000,000 |
| Poland | 48,000,000 |
| Turkey | 47,000,000 |
| China | 30,000,000 |
*Ed. Note: Numbers have been converted from GBP to USD.
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