British distillers poured their gins for Israeli buyers in Tel Aviv on Monday, and the British Embassy came armed with a number to back the sales pitch: UK gin exports to Israel are closing in on £3.99 million a year (about NIS 16 million). More than three quarters of the gin bottled and sold in Israel already comes from a British still, according to embassy figures released at the event.
That dominance reflects real, growing demand in a small, wealthy market. It also lands at a moment when gin sales inside Britain itself have gone soft, and shipping bottles abroad has become the industry’s clearest source of growth.
British Brands Fill a Tel Aviv Tasting Room
The event, called “Distilling Excellence: UK Gin Showcase,” was organised jointly by the British Embassy in Israel and the UK’s Department for Business and Trade. It put Israeli distributors, retailers and hospitality buyers in a room with the people who actually make the product, for tastings and one on one meetings.
- Brighton Gin and Shortcross Gin, two independent UK distillers pitching directly to Israeli buyers.
- Sky Wave Signature London Dry Gin, whose co-founder ran the day’s tasting masterclass.
- Cotswolds Dry Gin, only recently placed in Israel through local distributor The Importer.
- Established names already on Israeli shelves, including The Botanist, Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire and Greenall’s Gin, alongside British tonic water makers.
Israeli distillery Milk & Honey also took a seat at the tastings, a detail worth returning to. Guests then moved into a masterclass led by Andrew Parsons, Sky Wave Gin’s co-founder and master distiller, before producers sat down for meetings with prospective Israeli partners.
A Small Slice of a Much Bigger Trade Relationship
Gin is a rounding error next to everything else Britain sells to Israel. The UK exported £3.3 billion in annual exports to Israel in the four quarters to the end of the first quarter of 2025, government trade data show.
Total two way commerce between the countries was even larger. Trade between the countries reached £6.2 billion in the same stretch, up 3.7% despite years of boycott campaigns aimed at Israeli goods, separate figures published by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade show.
The Tel Aviv showcase fits a wider pattern in how London runs its trade diplomacy. A similar push helped lift trade with Egypt to £2.8 billion in 2025, built partly on deepening green economy ties. Gin, in that context, is a small but visible test case for the same playbook.
The Pitch From London
Britain’s ambassador addressed the room before the tastings began.
Israel is an important market for British gin, with growing demand for premium brands and distinctive products.
Simon Walters, the UK’s ambassador to Israel, told the gathered producers and buyers. He added that the embassy hoped the event would “spark new partnerships and create further opportunities for trade between our two countries.”
It is a modest ambition dressed up in diplomatic language, but the underlying math is not modest at all. Israel’s own gin market is estimated at just £9.73 million a year, meaning British producers already claim most of a market that still has room to grow.
Where British Gin Exports Are Growing Fastest
The embassy did not pick Israel at random. Gin is one of the few UK food and drink categories still expanding at pace, and the pattern shows up across several markets at once.
| Market | UK Gin Export Value | Latest Change | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Israel | £3.99 million (2024) | Import share above 75% | Local market estimated at £9.73 million a year |
| Turkey | £9.4 million (H1 2025) | Up 135% | Fastest growing market in the FDF’s H1 snapshot |
| United States | £99.6 million (H1 2025) | Up 23.8% in value | Largest single destination for UK gin |
| Global total | £602.6 million (2025) | Up 13.7% | Best year on record for the category |
Turkey’s gin shipments jumped 135% in the first half of 2025, the fastest growth of any market tracked by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), the trade body for UK food and drink manufacturers. The United States stayed the single biggest buyer even as a 10% US tariff on UK goods squeezed other categories.
Across every market combined, UK gin exporters gin exports climbed 13.7% in value in 2025 to reach £602.6 million, the FDF’s Trade Snapshot report found, even as volumes barely moved.
Why Does the UK Need Israel to Buy More Gin?
Because gin’s home market has cooled. British consumption has fallen sharply from its 2019 peak share of the country’s spirits sales, big domestic brands have shed tens of millions of pounds in value, and analysts are split on whether the slide has already bottomed out. Exports are where the growth is left.
Chris Pitcher, a drinks analyst at Redburn Atlantic, told an industry conference run by the Gin Guild that gin made up roughly 22% of UK spirits consumption at its peak. By 2025, he said, that had fallen 40% below its peak share.
The UK’s best known gins have felt it directly. Gordon’s, Diageo’s flagship label, Gordon’s shed £72.8 million in sales value in the year to April 2023, with volumes down 20.5%, trade publication The Grocer found. Whitley Neill, Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray lost a combined £33.9 million over the same stretch, as 7.7 million fewer litres moved through British tills.
Industry groups point to more than fading fashion. UK spirits duty runs 77% higher than the European Union average, according to an industry report cited by Drinks International, and younger drinkers are cutting back for health reasons, market researcher Mintel has found.
- Chris Pitcher, drinks analyst at Redburn Atlantic – warns the category is flashing the “alarm bells” of long term structural decline as UK growth flattens out.
- Michael Vachon, co-founder of Maverick Drinks – calls that reading overblown and says demand for gin worldwide is still climbing.
Even Pitcher conceded a bright spot. Nielsen data showed UK gin volumes held flat in the 52 weeks to April 20, 2025, a pause he called good news after several years of straight decline.
Milk & Honey Pours From the Other Side of the Bar
Israel is not just a buyer of British gin. Milk & Honey, the Tel Aviv distillery known internationally for its single malt whisky, makes a Levantine Gin from the same malted barley base as its whisky line.
It has company. The award winning Golan Heights Distillery bottles an Etrog Gin, made from ancient yellow citron, as part of its Holy Land Gin range, and Kibbutz Hanita’s Jullius Distillery produces an Akko Wild Gin from twelve Galilean botanicals. Founder Yuval Hargil, who opened the country’s first boutique distillery in 2008, said he set out to make a gin that was “completely Israeli, from start to finish.”
None of that changes the arithmetic of Monday’s showcase. Three in four bottles on Israeli shelves still arrive from Britain, and Milk & Honey’s seat at the embassy’s own tasting table suggests the local producers are choosing to share the room rather than compete for it from the outside.
The Deals Still Have to Get Signed
Monday’s tastings proved nothing by themselves. What counts now is whether the Israeli distributors who sampled Brighton Gin, Shortcross and Cotswolds Dry Gin turn those meetings into purchase orders.
That is the same test that will decide if Cotswolds’ new tie up with The Importer becomes real shelf space in Tel Aviv supermarkets or stays a sample bottle passed around a showcase floor.
