INDIA: Vodka to be India's next big thing – forecast

Vodka will be the next drinks category to benefit from India's growing alcohol consumption going forward, according to industry forecasts.

The white spirit has demonstrated considerable growth in the country over the last two years, and will continue to rise, an analyst at Euromonitor said today (30 October).

Speaking at day one of this year's IndSpirit conference, Divya Bendre of Euromonitor International in Singapore, said that the vodka category will grow exponentially in India, as more of the country's population enter the legal drinking age segment.

"With 50% of India's population forecast to be below 30 years old by 2015, coupled with a growing trend amongst producers to target female consumers, vodka is set to explode in the next few years," Bendre said.

The sentiment was echoed by Lalit Khaitan, the head of Indian spirits producer Radico Khaitan. "The global market share of spirit drinks for vodka is around 22.5%," Khaitan said. "In India today, it is only 2.5%. Future growth (in the country) will come predominantly from new consumers."

Khaitan also noted that the vodka market demonstrated CAGR of around 25% in India in the last three years. Forecast CAGR for vodka in Asia as a whole between 2009 and 2014 is expected to be around 17%.

The IndSpirit conference runs today and tomorrow in Mumbai.