Guadalajara, Jalisco. During the first quarter of the year, tequila exports to the United States increased 32% compared to the same period of the previous year, going from 59.5 million liters sold to that country in the January-March 2021 quarter to 78.6 million liters this 2022.
Even the number of tequila exports to the United States in the first quarter of 2022 is 69% higher than in the same period of 2019, before the pandemic, when 46.5 million liters were sold to the neighboring country, according to the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT).
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), beer, tequila and avocado are the three products that are most consumed on the tables of American families, with an upward trend in bilateral trade.
At the end of 2021, the agri-food and fisheries trade balance of Mexico with the United States registered a surplus of 13,443 million dollars, higher than that of the last four years, with the exception of 2020.
Only in the category of tequila, the United States is the main consumer of the national drink par excellence.
Of the 339.4 million liters that were exported in 2021 to the whole world, 288.9 million were sent to the United States, which means that that country received almost 85% of tequila exports.
The president of the National Chamber of the Tequila Industry (CNIT), Luis Fernando Félix Fernández, indicated that “the United States is the country where tequila is sold the most, it is even sold more than in Mexico; almost 85% of the export goes to the United States”.
He explained that it was precisely during the pandemic when the consumption of the most representative drink in Mexico had the greatest growth due to confinement, since, although the consumption centers closed, people began to buy tequila to consume it at home.