Mexico's tequila and mezcal exports reached $3.015 billion in nominal value from January through August 2026, up 15.5% year on year, according to Banco de México data compiled by GCMA and reported by El Economista on October 11.
The figure placed the category second among Mexico's agrifood exports for the period, trailing only beer and ahead of avocado, inside a national agrifood trade surplus that narrowed even as overall shipments grew.
What the GCMA export figures actually measure
The number comes from Mexico's central bank trade records as compiled by the Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas, a private agricultural markets consultancy, and surfaced publicly through El Economista's regular agrifood trade coverage. Set against the wider agrifood account, the same release showed total agrifood exports growing 2.5% to 36.035 billion dollars from January through August while agrifood imports rose 5.1% to 31.752 billion dollars. That widening import bill helped shrink the overall agrifood trade surplus to 4.283 billion dollars for the eight months, a 13.1% drop from the 4.931 billion dollars recorded in the same span of 2025.
Two caveats apply to the headline number. First, it is a value series, not a volume count: it shows what exporters billed buyers abroad, not how many liters left the country, so the 15.5% gain could reflect more product shipped, higher prices charged, or a shift in the mix between bulk and bottled goods. Second, Mexico's published trade tables typically report tequila and mezcal as a single bundled line item even when outlets shorthand it simply as tequila, meaning the figure should be read as a combined category rather than tequila alone.
How the growth rate has moved through the year
Earlier readings from the same Banxico and GCMA series show the pace shifting across 2026. Tequila exports totaled 1.894 billion dollars from January through May, a 15.1% increase over the same months of 2025. By the half-year mark, the cumulative total reached 2.331 billion dollars, a steeper 21.8% gain that outpaced other major agrifood categories that period. The rate eased to 15.5% once August was added, meaning the category's year-on-year growth cooled somewhat over the summer even as its dollar total kept climbing.
Why avocado slipped behind tequila in the rankings
Part of tequila's move into second place among agrifood exports reflects what happened to avocado rather than any acceleration in agave spirits. Mexican avocado export volumes rose 33.7% between January and August 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, but average export prices collapsed over the same period, falling roughly 63.2% per kilogram as a near-record harvest and growing competition from Peru and Colombia pushed international prices down. The combination of higher volume and much lower prices cut into avocado's dollar earnings even as more fruit physically left the country, a dynamic distinct from whatever is driving tequila and mezcal's value gain.
Where the tequila and mezcal exports go
Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said during appearances tied to Mexico's National Tequila Day in July and again ahead of G20 trade talks in October that roughly 83% of Mexico's tequila exports go to the United States, a concentration officials have flagged as a risk they want to diversify. The same El Economista item that reported the 3.015 billion dollar figure noted that the United States absorbs effectively all of the tequila and mezcal Mexico sells abroad, alongside large shares of Mexican beer, produce and meat.
Volume data from the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, the body that certifies tequila production, offers longer-run context even though it runs on a different calendar and reporting basis than the Banxico series. The CRT's preliminary count for full-year 2025 put tequila export volume at 407.8 million liters, up 1.24% from 402.7 million liters in 2024, with 278.62 million liters classified as 100% agave tequila and 129.37 million liters as mixto, and 311.59 million liters shipped bottled at origin against 96.39 million liters sent in bulk. Even with that gain, 2025 volumes remained below the 418.91 million liters exported during 2022's pandemic-era peak.
What this means
What is not yet established is whether the 15.5% gain reflects more bottles leaving Mexico or simply richer pricing on the same volume, since the GCMA and Banxico release is a dollar series and no product-level liter count for the January-August window had been published alongside it. Readers tracking the story should watch for the CRT's own full-year 2026 export tally, due early next year, to see whether it confirms a genuine volume expansion or whether the dollar figure owes more to premiumization, a weaker peso, or the mezcal line folded into the same trade category.