Filipinos will be consuming more alcoholic drinks not only in 2025 but in years to come, according to a US report.
Sales of alcoholic products are expected to grow 5 to 7 percent each year in the Philippines, a report by the United States Department of Agriculture through its Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila, has projected.
The FAS Manila report, dated April 4, 2025, saw the increase in sales as likely, despite the 6-percent increase in the excise tax per proof liter for such products, at the start of every year. The report cited “the Philippines’ favorable consumer demographics, increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages and widespread acceptance of American products,” as reasons for its projection.
Under Republic Act 11467, distilled spirits’ ad valorem excise tax was at 22 percent starting 2020 and their specific excise tax was set at P69.96 per proof liter starting 2025, from 2024’s range of P47 to P66 per proof liter. The excise tax is scheduled to rise 6 percent annually at the start of each year.
The same law also mandated the increase in wine products’ specific excise tax per liter from P63.12 in 2024 to P66.91 in 2025, and by 6 percent more annually in the following years. Other fermented liquor’s per liter excise tax rose by 6 percent from P43 in 2024 to P45.58, and by 6 percent further every year thereafter.
In projecting an increase in Filipino consumption, the USDA FAS Manila’s report cited the Euromonitor which estimated that in 2024, as much as 3.6 billion liters of alcoholic drinks were consumed in the Philippines and this will likely reach 3.85 billion liters in 2025, based on the 7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of consumption over the past five years.
The report added that beer has remained the most widely consumed drink, accounting for 74 percent of the total consumption, while distilled spirits accounted for 25 percent, and wine and other alcoholic beverages accounted for 1 percent.
Of the total consumption of alcoholic products in 2024, only 142 million liters or approximately 4 percent were imported as the overall Philippine imports of alcoholic drinks grew at a CAGR of 1.6 percent over the past five years.
The FAS Manila’s report added that food and beverage consumption rates in the Philippines have been buoyed by a strong consumer base of the “young” that has been “growing rapidly.” “The country’s population is young and growing rapidly” and can be described as a “consumption sweet spot despite the broad income disparity,” stated the USDA FAS Manila report.
“Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the population is estimated to be approximately 114 million in 2025, with a median age of 24 years and a fertility rate of 1.9 to 2.1 children, on pace to reach between 132 million and 145 million by 2055. The average annual family income in the Philippines was estimated at $6,100, with the upper decile earning around $15,000,” the report further cited.
The United States primarily supplies wines and whiskeys and was the fourth largest supplier of alcoholic drinks to the Philippines in 2024, with a 7 percent market share, according to the FAS Manila report.
“This highlights the huge potential for US exporters to significantly grow their market share in the Philippines across all alcohol product categories,” the report said.
