Mexico's tequila exports to China to double in 2015

Mexico's tequila exports to China are expected to double in 2015, Mexican daily El Universal reported Monday.

The National Tequila Industry Chamber (CNIT) said it expected to see a 100 percent increase in exports to the Asian giant this year, or a total of 1 million liters in sales to China.

In an interview with the daily, CNIT President Luis Velasco Fernandez said exports of tequila in general will rise by an average 8 percent this year as "tequila is in fashion around the world," particularly top-of-the-line products.

Still, the chamber has had to cut its long-term projected exports to China, Velasco told regional daily Cronica de Jalisco, which serves Mexico's leading tequila producing state.

"We were expecting to export 10 million liters by 2018, (a target) we have had to put off a couple of years," Velasco told Cronica. "We think we will reach that target, but by 2020."

The delay, he said, was mostly due to regulatory matters.

Mexico produced 242 million liters of tequila in 2014, or 7 percent more than the year before, the daily said, with 172 million liters, or nearly 70 percent, destined for exports markets.

The United States consumes 80 percent of Mexico's tequila exports.