NZABC executive director Virginia Nicholls said recent Stats NZ data showed beer, wine and spirits consumption had declined to the lowest level since data was first collected, and there had been "a seismic cultural shift towards mindful drinking".
She said the beer, wine and spirits consumption per head of population was at an all-time low, declining in the past year by 5%.
She said the statistics also showed beer, wine and spirits consumption per capita had also declined more than 30% since 1986, and a Curia Market Research poll of 1000 New Zealanders in October 2024 found 55% of respondents (up from 49% in 2021) were drinking low-alcohol beverages at least some of the time, and some preferred low-alcohol beverages.
"The consumer trend towards moderation is very real, with more focus on health and wellness.
"Beer, wine and spirits have responded to this trend by offering a wider range of low and no-alcohol options.
"We are seeing consumers drinking less and drinking better with the move to moderation as part of a balanced lifestyle."
She also said data from a 2024 New Zealand Health Survey showed hazardous drinking or harmful alcohol consumption among adults over the past four years, had declined to 16.6% (down from 21.3% in 2019-20).
The volume of beer, wine and spirits standard drinks per person aged 18 years and over, fell 4.9% to 1.77 standard drinks per person per day.
She believed it meant most consumers were drinking within HNZ’s low-risk drinking advice.
However, National Public Health Service medical officer of health Dr Michael Butchard rejected the data she presented.
He quoted the World Health Organisation, which noted that in terms of alcohol consumption, "there is no safe amount that does not affect health".
"Alcohol is a major contributing factor to acute illness and injuries.
"It also causes many serious long-term health conditions, including liver disease, heart disease and cancer.
"At least seven types of cancer are caused by alcohol, including bowel cancer and breast cancer."
He said even light drinking (one-three standard drinks a week) increased the risk of breast and bowel cancer.
"It’s deeply concerning that the average alcohol consumption in New Zealand per person is 1.77 standard drinks per day — the equivalent of over 12 standard drinks per week.
"According to the Royal Society of New Zealand, anything over nine standard drinks per week is ‘increasingly high risk’."
Dr Butchard said National Public Health Service data showed Dunedin had a higher rate of alcohol-related harm than the rest of New Zealand.
"It had the highest rate [159 people per 100,000 population] of hospitalisations wholly attributable to alcohol in the country, between 2012 and 2021.
"From 2018 to 2022, the Dunedin Hospital emergency department averaged over 1400 alcohol-related presentations per year.
"In 2023, Otago had the second-highest rate of ACC alcohol-related harm claims in New Zealand."
Nationwide, alcohol-related harm cost the country an estimated $9.1 billion each year — $4.8b of this alone was due to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
He said in 2018 alone, alcohol caused an estimated 901 deaths from cancers and injuries; 1250 cancer diagnoses; 29,282 hospitalisations; 49,742 disability-adjusted life years; and 128,963 Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims.
Māori were twice as likely to die from alcohol-related causes, compared with non-Māori, he said.
