The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) and Park Street released the Craft Spirits Data Project (CSDP) at its annual Craft Spirits Economic Briefing, which was held at New York Distilling Co. last week. The report finds that the U.S. craft spirits market share reached 4.9% in volume and 7.5% in value in 2021, up from 4.7% in volume and 7.1% in value in 2020.
The report also said that the number of active craft distillers in the U.S. grew by 17.4% to reach a total of 2,687. The U.S. craft spirits market volume reached over 13.2 million 9-liter cases in retail sales in 2021, representing an annual growth rate of 10.4%. In value terms, the market reached $7.5 billion in sales, representing an annual growth rate of 12.2%.
Sales in 2021 might be skewed upward when comparing to the first pandemic year of 2020 when the on-premise was mostly shut down, but not only were sales strong in 2021, market share grew as well.
Another interesting indicator in the report was the dramatic uptick in export sales, which increased by 58%, reaching 164,000 9-liter cases.
As the alcohol beverage sector continues to expand and diversify into new categories such as hard kombucha, hard seltzers, canned wine and beyond, craft spirits continues to grow – both in volume and market share.
See the full report here.