European Union exports of spirits and liqueurs rose sharply in the first eight months of 2026, even as wine sales slipped and beer shipments to the United States fell steeply.
The figures come from a European Commission trade report published on Thursday, October 29.
The report, “Monitoring EU Agri-Food Trade: Developments until August 2026,” shows that spirits and liqueurs exports reached €6.054 billion from January through August, up €583 million from €5.471 billion in the same period of 2025. That is an increase of 11% after rounding, making spirits the strongest-performing major alcoholic beverage category in the data.
Wine moves in the opposite direction
Wine and related products went the other way. Export value fell to €10.645 billion from €10.809 billion a year earlier, a drop of €164 million, or about 2%. Beer is included in a broader category, “beer, cider and other beverages,” which posted exports of €7.182 billion, down €37 million from €7.218 billion.
The data come from Eurostat COMEXT, extracted on October 16, and measure the value of trade rather than physical volumes. The changes therefore show how much exports were worth, not how many bottles or cases were shipped.
A sharp split in the US market
The report points to a clear divide inside Europe’s alcohol trade. Spirits regained value in foreign markets after a weak 2025, while wine continued to lose export revenue. The contrast was especially marked in the United States, one of the EU’s most important overseas markets. Through August, EU spirits and liqueur exports to the US rose 9% in value, wine exports fell 5%, and beer exports dropped 39%.
The Commission said the rise in spirits was supported mainly by stronger sales to Ukraine and the United States, along with higher exports to Russia and Kazakhstan. It did not provide country-by-country euro totals, but said the increase was spread across several destinations.
A reversal for spirits, a longer slide for wine
The rebound reverses 2025, when full-year EU spirits and liqueur exports totaled €8.361 billion, down 4.7% (€408 million) from €8.769 billion in 2024. The January-August 2026 figures do not guarantee the full-year result, but they show the category recovering.
Wine has not followed the same path. Its 2026 decline extends a downturn from 2025, when EU wine and related exports fell to €16.499 billion from €17.456 billion in 2024, a loss of €957 million, or 5.5%. The drop through August 2026 is smaller than that full-year fall, but the direction remains negative.
The gap narrows
Wine is still the EU’s biggest beverage export category in the report, at €10.645 billion against €6.054 billion for spirits and liqueurs. But spirits gained ground: from January to August 2025 they made up about 33.6% of the combined wine-and-spirits export total, rising to about 36.3% in the same period of 2026.
Imports and trade balance
On the import side, EU imports of spirits and liqueurs rose to €2.960 billion from €2.767 billion, up €193 million, or 7%. Because exports grew much faster, the spirits trade surplus climbed to €3.094 billion from €2.704 billion, an improvement of €390 million, or 14.4%.
Wine imports from non-EU countries moved the other way, totaling €889 million through August 2026 against about €955 million a year earlier, a decline of roughly €66 million, or 7%. That partly offset weaker exports but did not prevent a slight deterioration in the wine surplus, which stood at €9.756 billion, down from €9.854 billion. The Commission put the reduction at €99 million, close to 1%.
Even so, wine remained the largest source of positive trade balance among the beverage groups, well ahead of the €5.502 billion surplus for beer, cider and other beverages and the €3.094 billion for spirits and liqueurs.
Reading the beer figures with caution
Because the Commission groups beer, cider and other beverages under one heading, the report does not separate beer from the other products. It did single out one notable result: EU beer exports to the US fell 39% in value through August 2026. It did not publish the absolute euro value of those exports, nor say how much of the decline came from lower volumes versus lower prices.
For the full category, imports fell to €1.679 billion from about €1.749 billion, a decline of roughly €70 million, or 4%. Since imports fell more than exports, the category’s surplus edged up to €5.502 billion from €5.469 billion, an increase of €34 million.
A possible distortion from early 2025
The Commission also noted that trade with the US was unusually strong in the first quarter of 2025, possibly because businesses brought purchases forward after Washington announced new tariff plans. That may have inflated the 2025 base used for comparison. The report did not estimate how much this affected any specific category, nor did it quantify any direct tariff impact on wine, beer or spirits.
The big picture
Together, the three categories exported €23.881 billion from January through August 2026, up €383 million, or about 1.6%, from €23.498 billion a year earlier. With imports of €5.528 billion, the overall trade surplus reached about €18.352 billion, up from about €18.027 billion.
Most of the improvement came from spirits and liqueurs, whose €583 million export gain outweighed the €164 million drop in wine and the €37 million decline in beer, cider and other beverages. Spirits also delivered the biggest surplus gain, at €390 million, while wine’s surplus fell by €99 million and the broader beer category improved by €34 million.
The report does not break down which types of spirits drove the increase, nor does it separate individual wine products. But the direction is clear: through August 2026, spirits strengthened, wine remained under pressure, and beer faced a particularly weak US market.
Source: Vinetur