{"id":113654,"date":"2016-02-22T19:15:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T17:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=113654"},"modified":"2016-02-22T19:53:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T17:53:04","slug":"south-africas-booze-habits-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/113654\/south-africas-booze-habits-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s boozing habits revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data from the South African Wine Industry Information & Systems (Sawis) shows that South Africans are consuming 13.6% more alcohol than they were a decade ago.<\/p>\n

According to Sawis, South Africans consumed a combined 4 billion litres of alcohol in 2015, totalling R96.5 billion worth of booze – this is up from about 3.5 billion litres in 2006, worth R46.9 billion.<\/p>\n

Compared to 2014, alcohol volumes were up marginally by 1%, though total value brought in was up 6.5%, reflecting higher alcohol prices.<\/p>\n

“The South African alcoholic beverage market is a mature market with little changes between beer and the other liquor categories,” Sawis said.<\/p>\n

“(However) with a population growth of +2% and annual volume growth of only 1% the per capita, consumption is declining by at least 1% per year.”<\/p>\n

Despite this, there have been some outstanding sectors – the domestic wine market has increased by 7.7% in 2015, particularly as there were new consumers in the sweet red and ros\u00e9 sector, the group said.<\/p>\n

South Africa remains a beer drinking nation, though, with beer sales totalling R52.7 billion in 2015, with 3.1 billion litres consumed. 77.7% of all alcohol consumed in 2015 was beer – while it accounts for 54.6% of the market share in terms of value.<\/p>\n

The beer market, in terms of both volume and value is larger than all other alcohol categories combined.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s favourite booze by volume (2015)<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nAlcohol<\/th>\nVolume (‘000 litres)<\/th>\nValue (R’000)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nBeer<\/td>\n3 100 000<\/td>\n52 734 950<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nReady To Drink Wine<\/td>\n424 500<\/td>\n12 634 555<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nNatural Wine<\/td>\n317 400<\/td>\n9 399 196<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nWhisky<\/td>\n36 300<\/td>\n8 179 842<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nBrandy<\/td>\n30 150<\/td>\n4 836 060<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nFortified Wine<\/td>\n27 630<\/td>\n1 351 107<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nVodka<\/td>\n22 000<\/td>\n3 153 040<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nLiqueurs<\/td>\n9 000<\/td>\n1 210 079<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nSparkling Wine<\/td>\n7 900<\/td>\n818 598<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nRum<\/td>\n6 100<\/td>\n1 164 307<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nGin<\/td>\n5 750<\/td>\n892 400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nCane<\/td>\n1 200<\/td>\n134 796<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n3 987 930<\/strong><\/td>\n96 508 931<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ready to drink wine (RTD) is the second biggest market, with 424 million litres consumed (worth R12.6 billion), followed by Natural wines (317.4 million litres at R9.4 billion).<\/p>\n

All spirits, including gin, cane, brandy, vodka, whisky, rum and liqueurs, totalled 110.5 million litres consumed, at a value of R19.6 billion.<\/p>\n

The other two categories are fortified wines (27.6 million litres valued at R1.35 billion) and sparkling wines (7.9 million litres valued at R818.6 million).<\/p>\n

On an average cost per litre basis, this is how how South African alcohol stacks up:<\/p>\n