New figures indicate that the number of shoppers in the Republic going North has jumped by a quarter in less than a year.
The drinks industry body in the Republic, the Alcohol Beverage Foundation of Ireland, has called on the Government to cut excise duties on alcohol.
Its director Rosemary Garth said new data from Nielsen Ireland showed that off licence sales in the North had risen by 30% in the year to August, while those in the South had fallen by 7% in the same period.
Ms Garth also quoted figures made available to her by market research firm TNS Worldpanel, which showed that 15.9% of households in the South were now travelling to the North for grocery shopping. She said this translated into 250,000 households, up from 200,000 at the end of 2008.
Ms Garth said cross-border shopping had cost the Exchequer an estimated €400m in lost taxes this year, adding that this was likely to increase in the run-up to Christmas, especially if sterling remained weak. She said the price gap for alcohol on either side of the border was an important factor in this trade.
ABFI's membership includes drinks manufacturers and suppliers. It says 90,000 jobs across the industry are at risk from cross-border shopping.
