Scotch export data highlights headaches for distillers

This time six years ago, Scotch whisky was in a pretty good spot. Export shipments in 2019 had ticked up close to the £5bn ($6.75bn) barrier, with the equivalent of 1.3bn bottles sold outside the UK. Shipments to the US – already comfortably Scotch’s most important export destination – hit £1.07bn, despite a 25% slump in the fourth quarter, prompted by the introduction of a 25% import tariff. Only that, plus worrying news about a new respiratory virus emerging in China, took the gloss off the numbers. Ba ...