About 71% of Indians paused drinking for some time, while a little more than half the drinkers in South Africa, Mexico and Brazil reported similar behaviour, said a report by IWSR, a global beverage alcohol data and intelligence company.
Temporary abstinence or abstaining for a specific period of time is a popular moderation strategy, especially among younger legal drinkers, with health and wellness being primary motivations for reduced alcohol consumption.
“Drinking is no longer a taboo for younger generations and maturity has set in with higher accessibility of alcohol. So instead of binge drinking, people are far more conscious and prefer to drink less but better. Then there are things like intermittent fasting when it comes to health and fitness and a tipple would not fit into this trend,” said Bikram Basu, chief operating officer, Allied Blenders and Distillers. “There is also a trend of partying in a unisex group where people don’t want to be drunk or overindulge.”
The proportion of light drinkers – defined as those with low frequency and intensity of consumption – has increased significantly across key markets, with light drinkers now representing the largest segment, surpassing medium and heavy drinkers, as per the report.
However, companies said the trend will not impact demand in India, the biggest volume market for whisky and among the largest spirits consuming markets globally.”People abstaining from liquor for religious obligations isn’t new and even if there are consumers halting consumption temporarily, it is an aberration. With 20 million people added in the legal drinking age every year in India, these micro-trends will not impact the market growth as drinking is part of the culture now,” said Amar Sinha, chief operating officer, Radico Khaitan.IWSR, which surveyed more affluent drinkers across ten major cities in India, said the trend spans all age groups, regions and demographics, highlighting moderation as a mainstream cultural phenomenon rather than a trend limited to younger consumers. However, permanent rejection of alcohol is now much less of a factor among consumers than it was in early 2023.
“It’s now becoming clear that some of the withdrawal from alcohol at that time was more to do with economic worries and lingering effects of Covid and associated lockdowns,” said Richard Halstead, chief operating officer, Consumer Research, IWSR.
He added that drinkers are now more habitual in their control of alcohol intake, but the surge in people abstaining from alcohol altogether in 2023 now looks to be a blip.
