Is a trend emerging with mezcal sales?
The other week I took a dive into the 2023 mezcal and tequila sales out from DISCUS and that lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole as I tried to find more specific numbers for mezcal. That’s always a tricky thing because so many reports have conflicting information, use mezcal and tequila interchangeably and aren’t really clear with where the information comes from. It seems the most consistent and clear numbers come from Impact Databank. I did a quick IG post on some of those numbers that showed 2023 export sales numbers for the top selling brands in the US market.
That got me curious about how that compared to sales during the pandemic years so I went back a little further to 2020 to understand how the market grew and who the top selling brands were over the past four years. It remains surprisingly consistent.
Looking at those numbers over the years paints a clearer picture of just how rapidly mezcal exports grew from 2020-2022. But when you put those numbers into perspective of the total export market you see some interesting trends during the pandemic and then coming out of it.
It makes sense that in 2020 and 2021, “other” had a larger piece of the pie. On premise accounts were quiet, and people therefore were buying more bottles from off premise accounts. Sales of those top selling brands, which we think of more for the cocktail market (assuming the bulk of mezcal sales for Del Maguey came from Vida), remained solid as people were making cocktails at home. But clearly people were buying a lot of non-cocktail mezcal, primarily because they didn’t have much else to spend money on during those years. That changed in 2022 as on premise opened fully and focused on cocktails, hence the percentage shift toward the top selling brands. It’s 2023 that is curious. It was an overall flat market compared to 2022, but “other” grew by 8% and it is not clear what was behind that shift. According to the DISCUS numbers, super premium agave spirits sales (defined as bottle costs above $55 retail) fell but high end agave spirits sales ($28-$55 retail) grew. Perhaps 2024 numbers will give us a bit more clarity.
So how do all of these numbers equate to total liter sales? When you do the math, the market went from about 4,000,000 liters in export sales in 2020 to about 7,500,000 million liters in 2023, which is enough to fill three olympic sized pools.
Good afternoon!
Greetings from Quebec.
I am curious if you have a breakdown of the brands that follow the multi-national brands? I would like to see what independent brands are leaning the charge!
Hi Matt –
Sadly no – I have yet to find a total breakdown of the top 20 brands or anything like that. Hopefully at some point the Mexican government will track total numbers but as of now, no one is. COMERCAM/CRM used to track the numbers (for certified mezcal only) but now that there are 5 certifiers, it is more complicated. I will continue to search!
Susan this is great!! I have downloaded every report on Mezcal production, export volume and annual sales. They all vary, although I did find Statistia to be fairly accurate. Also, it’s not just the CRM that counts volume, there is another mezcal body and also some mezcal producers are going rogue and not registering so I guesstimate total exports of Mezcal closer to 20m litres. Still a fraction of the 550m-660m litres of Tequila exported.
Very interesting to see the slump, but growth in “other”. Illegal have had sold help from Bacardi with distribution and sales. Interesting seeing Montelobos nicely climbing each year.
Would love to know if you have the numbers for 2024 yet? I can message the CRM!
Thank you! These numbers come from the export volumes that cross the border that are captured by US customs/trade not the CRM/Comercom. So these should be cumulative numbers of anything labeled mezcal crossing the border. I think destilados are still such a drop in the bucket compared with mezcal sales that it wouldn’t move the needle that much. It would be interesting to see the growth of destilados over the years but I have no idea who/how that is being tracked. I am not sure how data is being collected on the Mexican side as there are now 5 certifying/regulating bodies for mezcal. I haven’t seen a report from Comercom for 2023 so please send if you do get it – in the past they have released numbers usually by this time! I am wondering if eventually the Mexican government will be tracking the total numbers for mezcal including where mezcal is being produced/volume, breakdown of agave types, artesanal/ancestral, etc etc.
Amazing thanks Susan! I have the 2024 Mezcal Comercom report, what’s your email and I will send to you?