Malaysia’s beverage industry witnessed volumetric decline by 1.1% during Q4 2020 owing to the volumes drops of all sectors except the dairy drinks, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, ‘Malaysia Beverages Consumption Trends and Forecasts Tracker, Q4 2020 (Dairy and Soy Drinks, Alcoholic Drinks, Soft Drinks and Hot Drinks)’ reveals that strong gains across dairy categories including evaporated milk, condensed milk, flavored milk and white milk together helped the dairy drinks sector grow against the backdrop of falling volumes in other sectors.

Volume gains made by enhanced water, packaged water and iced/RTD coffee drinks managed to cushion but not completely offset the decline in the overall volume of soft drinks sector in Q4 2020 on a year-on-Year (Y-o-y) basis.

Sanchi Agarwal, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Packaged water and enhanced water categories benefited from the consumer shift in favor of categories that are perceived to be healthier. However, it is a trend exacerbated by the pandemic, led consumer preference to boost immunity through healthy dietary choices.”

Hot Drinks’ volumes declined across categories. Overall volumes of alcoholic drinks also fell by 11.7%, dragged down by sharp fall in beer consumption. Cider, on the other hand, made strong gains in Q4 2020, while fortified wine posted a modest gain.

Ms. Sanchi concludes: “The anticipated gradual return to normalcy and a revival in the economy post the government’s planned vaccination drive in 2021, will help revive the fortunes in the alcoholic drinks sector with the re-opening of on-premise channels and easing of restrictions on social gatherings.”