BROMSGROVE, England, May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The future outlook for the rum sector looks positive thanks in part to strong growth potential in regions where it remains relatively under-developed, including Central & Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the CIS, East Asia and the Middle East, according to a new report from just-drinks/The IWSR.

The report, released this week, found that the overall rum category achieved a "very healthy" 4.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2006 and 2011, with total sales now standing at 146.4m nine-litre cases. The IWSR says it expects this favourable trajectory to have continued in 2012 and the beginning of this year. 

Global rum imports have also been rising "steadily", achieving a CAGR of 4.2% between 2006 and 2011 to reach a new high of 25.3m cases (excluding duty free), in spite of the bruising economic conditions in Spain, which is still the world's largest rum import market by some way.

"Rum is growing at high rates in most under-developed regions," the report states. In addition, the report says the general growth in flavoured spirits has been benefiting the flavoured and spiced rum sub-categories, "opening up the category to a wider audience and drawing in a large number of new consumers".

While a significant proportion of rum sales come from low-priced markets such as India, the Philippines and Cuba, the standard-and-above category is performing well, the report says. Standard-and-above rum sales increased by 5.4m cases between 2007 and 2011 to 56.3m cases, with growth led by Brazil, Germany, the Dominican Republic and Russia.

However, the premium-and-above tiers are still "relatively underdeveloped", as premiumisation has come relatively late to the rum category. Global volumes of premium-and-above qualities reached around 4.8m cases in 2011, according to the IWSR data.

'Global market review of rum - forecasts to 2017' is now available at the just-drinks research store.

Aboutjust-drinks.com

Established in 1999, just-drinks is a leading online resource for the global beverage industry, publishing around 20 news articles, analysis features and insights every working day. Under the direction of managing editor Olly Wehring, its experienced team of journalists, consultants and analysts provide a unique and comprehensive blend of reports and interpretation of the beverage industry, including key events, trends, interviews and research that are delivered to over 92,000 business executives per month.

Via its web site, webinars and in-depth management briefings just-drinks offers insight into soft drinks, wine, beer, liqueur and whiskies industry developments and supply-chain trends, brand and corporate strategies, CONSULT research platform, enterprise technologies such as PLM and ERP. Furthermore, just-drinks supplies news on manufacturing developments and how the drinking industry retailers perform around the world.

For details of how just-drinks is helping decision makers make decisions, visit http://www.just-drinks.com.

About the IWSR

 The IWSR is the leading provider of data on wine, spirits and RTDs. The IWSR's database, essential to the industry, is used by all of the largest multinational wine and spirits companies, as well as many more local companies. The IWSR has a unique methodology which, by tapping into local country expertise, allows us to get closer to what is actually consumed and better understand how markets work. The IWSR conducts face-to-face interviews with 1,450 companies in 115 countries each year, with further input from 350 companies. The IWSR tracks overall consumption and trends at brand, quality and category level for wine, spirits and RTDs, and aims to provide data that is as accurate and detailed as possible.

For further information and images please contact Ellie Ward, Marketing Assistant at Aroq Limited on +44(0)1527-573-614, email ellie.ward@aroq.com

SOURCE just-drinks.com