One country drinks the most tequila and it’s not Mexico. The USA consumes more than half of all tequila produced (54% in 2023). Mexico is the second largest market for tequila representing 33% of total volume in 2023. Mexico is however the largest consumer of tequila per capita. The third biggest market for tequila is Spain, although they are well behind with just 1.4% of the tequila market.
The top 10 countries for tequila
The USA is by far the largest market for tequila, representing over 50% of total demand and receiving over 80% of total exports from Mexico. In 2023 the USA imported 321.6 million liters of tequila. This was actually a 5% reduction in imports compared to 2022.
The US drinks 1.6 times as much tequila as Mexico and imports 40x more than the next biggest consumer, Spain.
Growing global tequila market
Tequila production reduced slightly in 2023 after reaching a new record in 2022. Tequila production reduced by 4.2% in 2023 but is still well above earlier years.
Fastest growing markets for tequila
There were 58 countries with tequila imports over 100,000 liters in 2023. Of this group 7 grew at more than 100%, with the highest growers being Ukraine (+421%), Switzerland (+176%) and Estonia (+131%). The fastest growing countries were widely spread, with representatives from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
Shrinking markets for tequila
27 countries reduced tequila imports in 2023. The largest percentage reductions in tequila imports were in Peru (-58%), Ecuador (-43%), Ireland (-38%) and Panama (-31%).
Tequila imports by country
The following table lists tequila import volumes for all countries with imports greater than 100,000 liters in 2023.
| Country | 2022 (000 liters) | 2023 (000 liters) | % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 338,451 | 321,561 | -5% |
| Spain | 8,941 | 8,304 | -7% |
| Germany | 10,313 | 8,060 | -22% |
| France | 5,366 | 6,236 | 16% |
| UK | 5,136 | 5,485 | 7% |
| Canada | 4,822 | 4,622 | -4% |
| Italy | 4,203 | 4,319 | 3% |
| Japan | 2,510 | 3,844 | 53% |
| Colombia | 4,205 | 3,520 | -16% |
| Australia | 4,154 | 3,377 | -19% |
| Netherlands | 2,048 | 2,468 | 20% |
| Latvia | 1,844 | 2,314 | 25% |
| South Africa | 1,618 | 2,243 | 39% |
| China | 1,414 | 1,549 | 10% |
| Philippines | 724 | 1,281 | 77% |
| Singapore | 680 | 1,134 | 67% |
| Panama | 1,794 | 1,117 | -38% |
| India | 464 | 1,062 | 129% |
| Brazil | 1,045 | 1,061 | 2% |
| United Arab Emirates | 1,135 | 980 | -14% |
| Greece | 917 | 926 | 1% |
| Chile | 1,194 | 844 | -29% |
| Belgium | 1,005 | 740 | -26% |
| Russia | 282 | 638 | 126% |
| Dominican Republic | 703 | 548 | -22% |
| South Korea | 607 | 529 | -13% |
| Turkey | 626 | 524 | -16% |
| Puerto Rico | 565 | 515 | -9% |
| New Zealand | 275 | 483 | 76% |
| Ecuador | 748 | 429 | -43% |
| Guatemala | 458 | 425 | -7% |
| El Salvador | 481 | 423 | -12% |
| Honduras | 423 | 419 | -1% |
| Indonesia | 210 | 373 | 78% |
| Peru | 858 | 361 | -58% |
| Nigeria | 209 | 339 | 62% |
| Israel | 337 | 300 | -11% |
| Costa Rica | 380 | 297 | -22% |
| Bolivia | 293 | 278 | -5% |
| Portugal | 259 | 240 | -7% |
| Sweden | 127 | 166 | 31% |
| Poland | 144 | 158 | 9% |
| Norway | 156 | 157 | 0% |
| Switzerland | 56 | 154 | 176% |
| Ukraine | 29 | 149 | 421% |
| Uruguay | 217 | 149 | -31% |
| Ireland | 240 | 147 | -39% |
| Taiwan | 109 | 139 | 28% |
| Cuba | 68 | 138 | 103% |
| Paraguay | 157 | 137 | -13% |
| Lebanon | 68 | 129 | 91% |
| Serbia | 115 | 119 | 4% |
| Hungary | 79 | 110 | 40% |
| Czech Republic | 66 | 110 | 66% |
| Ghana | 49 | 107 | 117% |
| Estonia | 45 | 103 | 131% |
| Bahamas | 95 | 103 | 8% |
Read more about the tequila market
Source: All figures sourced from Mexico’s regulator for Tequila, the CRT