CALGARY — Alberta posted the largest year-over-year sales increase for beer and liquor stores and agencies, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal agency said Thursday that sales in that industry grew by 5.7 per cent in the province to $2.3 billion.
Nationally, $20.9 billion worth of alcoholic beverages were sold during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, up 3.0 per cent from the previous year.
The growth in wine sales (5.9 per cent) in 2012 outpaced the growth in both beer (0.6 per cent) and spirit (3.9 per cent) sales across the country.
In litres of absolute alcohol, the volume of sales of alcoholic beverages increased 3.5 per cent to 236.2 million litres, said Statitistics Canada.
Beer, liquor stores and agencies sold $9.2 billion worth of beer during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, up 0.6 per cent from the previous year. Alberta reported the largest sales increase at 7.1 per cent.
In 2002, beer had a market share of 50 per cent by dollar value, while wine had 24 per cent. By 2012, the market share for beer had declined to 44 per cent, while wine accounted for 31 per cent.
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