The Taiwan’s beverage industry recorded a moderate decline by 0.3% in volumes in Q4 2020, due to declines in all the sectors, except hot drinks, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, ‘Taiwan Beverages Consumption Trends and Forecasts Tracker, Q4 2020 (Dairy and Soy Drinks, Alcoholic Drinks, Soft Drinks and Hot Drinks)’, reveals that hot drinks gained volume by 1.6% in the quarter.

Hot drinks’ growth was led by gains in hot coffee, hot tea and other hot drinks categories. On the other hand, overall soft drink volumes fell by 2.6% in Q4 2020, despite strong gains in enhanced water and flavored water categories.

Anjali Singh, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, says: “While enhanced and flavored waters benefited from consumer preferences for healthy hydration, they are niche categories. Therefore, any strong gain made by them could not help offset the losses from other mainstream categories such as carbonates and packaged water.”

Dairy Drink volumes declined, driven down by a steep fall in the drinking yogurt category, while other categories also lost volumes at a marginal pace in Q4 2020 on a Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) basis. Gains in wine and spirits categories could not offset losses in beer, which dragged down alcoholic drinks volumes in the same period.

Ms Singh concludes: “The Taiwanese economy is expected to be on track for a strong growth in 2021, led by the country’s strong and successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. The anticipated revival of global economy following the vaccine roll-out will further strengthen economic recovery and benefit local business operations, suggesting a strong recovery in beverage volumes.”