Whisky exports totalled £1.7 billion in the first half of the year amid signs a recent decline for the product in overseas markets is slowing.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said a 3% dip in the value of exports in the first six months of 2015 was smaller than the 11% drop recorded between the first half of 2013 and 2014.
Overall, the volume of exports fell just under 3% to the equivalent of 517 million bottles, figures showed.
The SWA said "encouraging" trends were starting to develop in several key markets despite continuing economic headwinds, political uncertainty in some parts of the world and the impact of a stronger pound.
Premium blends and single malts continue to increase in popularity, with single malt exports up 5% to £406 million in the first half of 2015.
SWA chief executive David Frost said: "We're starting to see some strong signals for growth and we continue to believe the long-term prospects for scotch whisky remain good.
"This is reflected in the large number of new distilleries opening, with half a dozen starting production in the last year or so."
The SWA figures present a mixed picture on the global trading environment earlier this year.
Exports to the US remained steady at £327 million and exports to Mexico were up by almost 12% to £43 million, making it a top-ten market for whisky.
In China, the market returned to growth with direct exports jumping 46% to £22 million while exports to Japan went up 7.2% to £35 million.
The market was more volatile elsewhere - Germany was down in both value and volume in the first half of the year.
The Brazilian market was down nearly 30% in value because of the economic downturn and sanctions and economic developments in Russia knocked it out of the top 20 markets altogether.
Reflecting on the overall picture, Mr Frost said: "We're starting to see some strong signals for growth and we continue to believe the long-term prospects for scotch whisky remain good.
"The growth of single malt exports shows that premium products are ever-more popular.
"We had a decade of record growth, there was then a decline in exports in recent years largely because of the slowdown in the emerging markets, but signs of improvement are on the horizon."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel