Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Industry Outlook topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Kentucky panelists describe trade uncertainty, plant closures and tourism resilience in bourbon sector
Summary
At a Kentucky Commission on Women livestream, Maggie Kimbrell cited Distilled Spirits Council data showing a drop in U.S. DSP counts and large export declines to Canada, while also noting Kentucky-specific growth in licensed sites and Bourbon Trail visitor numbers that support tourism resilience.
At the Kentucky Commission on Women’s virtual panel, Maggie Kimbrell, content editor of American Whiskey Magazine, outlined a mixed economic picture for American whiskey: industry-wide closures and trade friction have coincided with steady overall sales and growth in visitor experiences in Kentucky.
Citing figures she said came from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), Kimbrell said the number of distilled spirits plants (DSPs) in the U.S. fell from about 3,100 in 2024 to roughly 2,300 in 2025, a decline she described as approximately 25 percent. She also summarized sectorwide revenue changes as a ~2.2 percent decrease and reported an increase in volume of about 1.9 percent (roughly 5.9 million cases), and said ready-to-drink cocktails grew 17 percent between 2024 and 2025.
Panelists discussed trade disruptions and tariffs. Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman noted a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision she said struck down tariffs in a 6–3 ruling; Kimbrell said the practical consequences are uncertain and described a dramatic export decline to Canada—she cited a drop from $171,000,000 to $47,000,000 (about a 73 percent decline) between March and October 2025—calling that statistic "shocking." The panel framed those figures as evidence of how trade policy and supply-chain volatility (glass, corks, imported inputs) complicate planning for distillers.
At the Kentucky level, Kimbrell read Kentucky Distillers Association data showing licensed DSP locations in Kentucky increased from about 100 to 124 between 2000–2025 (169 when bottling and warehousing are included), employment in the industry is down only about 100 jobs from a recent peak, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail recorded roughly 2.7 million visitor experiences in 2024, with nearly 80 percent of visitors coming from outside the commonwealth.
Panelists emphasized that tourism and visitor experiences (distillery tours, SIPposium events, new Bourbon Trail destinations) provide important revenue and stable demand even as parts of the industry consolidate. They cautioned that tariffs and international trade uncertainty create day-to-day input-cost volatility that can be especially difficult for smaller producers.
Speakers attributed the numeric figures in their remarks to external reports (DISCUS and the Kentucky Distillers Association); the panel did not present supporting documents during the livestream, so the figures reported here are those cited on the record and should be verified against the original publications for formal reporting.
