Taiwan becomes fifth whiskey importer
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-07-23 08:27
China's Taiwan imported 6.17 billion new Taiwan dollars (189.84 million U.S.
dollars) worth of scotch whiskey in 2005, making Taiwan the world's fifth
largest whisky importer for the year, according to a report reaching here from
Taipei on Saturday.
According to tallies released by the Geneva-based
Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), Taiwan ranked behind the United States, France,
Spain and South Korea in terms of the total value of scotch whiskey imported for
2005, according to the statistics.
Measuring by bottle, France imported
the largest quantity of Scotch whiskey in 2005 at 153.5 million bottles,
followed by the United States, Spain, Thailand and South Korea. Taiwan ranked
12th, importing 22.6 million bottles.
SWA spokesman David Williamson
noted that Taiwan people have shown a special interest in single malt whisky.
While the amount of bottled malt whisky imported into Taiwan increased by 46
percent in 2005, the amount of blended whisky imported only rose 3 percent,
according to the SWA.
Scotch whisky exports were valued at 4.39 billion
U.S. dollars in 2005, up 4 percent over the year-earlier level. Bottled blended
whisky remained the most popular in the world market, with exports totaling 3.42
billion U.S. dollars, according to the SWA tallies.
The SWA said Scotch
whiskey exports to the Chinese mainland market have a lot of potential for
growth, noting that the value of exports to the Chinese mainland soared
from 1.86 million U.S. dollars in 2000 to 85.47 million U.S. dollars in
2005.
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