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FAS and the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) in China worked together to educate, train, and promote Chinese breweries on how to use U.S. craft beer ingredients including hops and barely malts. Although U.S. hops and barley malts are priced higher than competitors, brewers have increasingly sought out U.S. ingredients for their high quality and stable supply.

On January 1, 2022, Poland implemented an amendment to the excise duty act on alcohol. The amendment increases the excise tax on alcohol by 10 percent and proposes the Excise Map, a schedule of additional excise tax increases of five percent each year during 2023-2027.

On December 6, 2021, the European Union published new rules concerning wine, dealcoholized and partially dealcoholized wine, and aromatized wine. These new rules introduce a compulsory nutrition declaration and a compulsory list of ingredients for wine products sold on the EU market beginning on December 8, 2023.

On January 3, 2022, Turkey announced the domestic producer price index (PPI) inflation in the second half of 2021 was 47.39 percent, therefore triggering an automatic increase in the fixed-amount Special Consumption Tax (SCT) for alcohol beverages, soft drinks, fruit juice, and tobacco products.

China is a leading beer market in terms of both production and consumption. However, in recent years China’s beer market has stagnated. Although U.S. beer accounts for a very small percentage of China’s imported beers, exports to China enjoy a good reputation.

On November 9, 2021, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a directive clarifying that all imported consignments of alcoholic beverages bottled in origin and in bulk, containing more than ten percent alcohol with no expiry date will be issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) with a validity of 300 days.

Japan’s National Tax Agency (NTA) published a list of 10 proposed geographical indications (GIs) for alcoholic beverages from the United Kingdom. NTA will accept public comments on the proposal through March 22, 2022.

Japan imports approximately 500,000 metric tons of malt annually, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of total demand. While overall beer consumption is declining, malt demand is expected to rebound from a down year in 2020 and steadily grow in subsequent years, reflecting strong demand for malt in craft beer and whiskey production.

The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) are key markets for U.S. craft beer and distilled spirits. In 2020, the United States shipped $26 million of beer products and $66 million of distilled spirits to the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.

This report intends to inform U.S. beer, wine, and spirits companies interested in exporting to Mexico about the general requirements, import process and timeframes, and about how often they are updated.

Plant-based diets and meat substitutes are gaining popularity and are capturing the interest of Thai consumers.

The Thai Excise Department approved the use of the APEC Model Wine Export Certificate for U.S. wine exports and the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) Certificate of Sanitation for U.S. beer and distilled spirit exports to Thailand with specific attestation.