‘Currency advantage’ driving down Singapore sake sales

Year-on-year sake sales in Singapore dropped significantly in 2023, but importer, distributor, and retailer Patrick Sng says this is down to a good exchange rate driving tourism to Japan.

Sake exports to Singapore in 2023 were just 64.9% of what they were in 2022, according to official figures by the Japan Sake and Shochu Association. This is despite a major spike in 2022, when sales of Japan’s national drink to Singapore were 393.8% up on the year before.

However, this is all down to a current “currency advantage”, according to Patrick Sng, who presented a talk entitled ‘Sip the Future: Expert Insights and Strategies for the Wine and Spirits Trade’ at ProWine Singapore this week.

The exchange rate is currently ¥1 to S$0.0087, and Sng argued that the relative affordability in Japan at the moment is pushing tourism from Singapore. As such, Singaporeans are drinking Japanese sake in the country from which it comes, rather than exporting it back home.

He argued that despite the drop in sales volumes, “we are more willing to pay for premium sake” in Singapore.

The numbers, however, show that while volume exports to Singapore in 2023 were 76.1% of the year before, value exports were 64.9% compared with 2022.

But economic headwinds could be to blame for these statistics. Sng argued that in Singapore, we’re seeing more “belt tightening” among consumers as cost-of-living concerns rise.

Singapore exports of Japanese sake may be down, but the trend is not shared across other countries on the continent. Sake exports to India have risen by over 900% in the last decade.

Rising interest in sake among Indian consumers has been spurred on by the proliferation of Japanese restaurants especially in the bustling metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. And tier two cities are fast catching up on the trend. Read more about that here.