Alcohol sales in Canada just saw ‘largest’ annual drop since tracking began

Sales of alcohol declined for the fourth straight year in 2024-25, according to a Statistics Canada report released Wednesday.

From April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, sales dropped by three per cent to 2,898 million litres on a volume basis, marking the fourth consecutive year volume sales have declined.

This was also reported as “the largest annual decrease since Statistics Canada began tracking this series in 2004/2005.”

Liquor authorities and other retail outlets “sold $25.8 billion worth of alcoholic beverages in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, down 1.6 per cent from fiscal year 2023/2024.”

This decrease happened despite a 1.6 per cent increase “in the price of alcoholic beverages in stores from March 2024 to March 2025.”

The overall dollar value of beer sales by liquor stores, agencies and other retail outlets dropped 1.6 per cent to $9.1 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

By volume, beer sales declined 3.8 per cent to 1,876 million litres in 2024-25, the ninth consecutive annual drop in beer sales by volume.

However, beer held its position as the top-selling beverage category in 2024-25; its market share went unchanged from a year earlier at just over one-third (35.1 per cent) of total sales.

Following the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on aluminum and steel, Canadian breweries have noted a struggle with producing beer cans in Canada, as the country switched gears from U.S.-reliant supply chains and as consumers double down on the “Buy Canadian” sentiment.

In addition, American alcohol was removed from the shelves of many provincial liquor stores in response to the first round of tariffs levied by U.S. President Donald Trump on March 4, 2025.

Ontario imported roughly $965 million worth of booze from America before the ban.

As a result, roughly $2 million worth of U.S. products have either expired or will expire in the next few months. Most of those products, according to the government, are beer, ready-to-drink beverages and wine.

Wine sales fell 2.2 per cent to $7.7 billion in 2024-25, which was driven by a decline in imported wine sales (-3.9 per cent). Imported wine accounted for 70 per cent of total wine sales.

The report noted that “this was the first time imported wine sales have decreased since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales by origin in 1992/1993.”

Domestic wine sales were found to be stable, increasing 1.9 per cent to $2.3 billion.

This was the fourth consecutive year of decline for wine sales by volume, equalling 460 million litres.

Ontario (-5.3 per cent) and Quebec (-4.3 per cent) saw the largest declines in imported wine sales in 2024-25.

Total sales of spirits dropped 3.2 per cent to $6.7 billion in 2024-25. Whisky (29.6 per cent), vodka (22.9 per cent) and liqueurs (15.4 per cent) were the top-selling spirits by share of total sales.

Overall, sales of spirits by volume decreased by 4.4 per cent to 177 million litres in 2024-25.

However, spirits were found to be the top seller in the Northwest Territories (44.1 per cent) and British Columbia (30.8 per cent).

For the second straight year, ciders and coolers were the sole alcoholic beverage category with increased sales.

Sales of ciders and coolers rose 4.8 per cent from the previous fiscal year to $2.4 billion in 2024-25, seeing increases in nine provinces and two territories but down in British Columbia (-2.0 per cent) and Yukon (-1.8 per cent).

The volume of ciders and coolers sold also rose by 2.2 per cent to 385 million litres.

Despite the sales of alcohol tanking across the country, cannabis sales are rising.

The report also evaluates the sales of cannabis in Canada, finding that recreational cannabis garnered $2.5 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, up 11.5 per cent.

Sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets also increased 6.1 per cent, rising $0.3 billion from the previous fiscal year to $5.5 billion in 2024-25.

Yukon was found to have the highest sales per person with an average of $384, while Quebec had the lowest with $105.

Quebec’s lower sales partly reflect restrictions in effect during the fiscal year, including a ban on cannabis vaping products and topicals, as well as limited edible offerings.

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