China's Taiwan imported 6.17 billion new Taiwan dollars (189.84 million U.S. dollars) worth of scotch whiskey in 2005, making Taiwan the world's fifth largest whisky importer for the year, according to a report reaching here from Taipei on Saturday.

According to tallies released by the Geneva-based Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), Taiwan ranked behind the United States, France, Spain and South Korea in terms of the total value of scotch whiskey imported for 2005, according to the statistics.

Measuring by bottle, France imported the largest quantity of Scotch whiskey in 2005 at 153.5 million bottles, followed by the United States, Spain, Thailand and South Korea. Taiwan ranked 12th, importing 22.6 million bottles.

SWA spokesman David Williamson noted that Taiwan people have shown a special interest in single malt whisky. While the amount of bottled malt whisky imported into Taiwan increased by 46 percent in 2005, the amount of blended whisky imported only rose 3 percent, according to the SWA.

Scotch whisky exports were valued at 4.39 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 4 percent over the year-earlier level. Bottled blended whisky remained the most popular in the world market, with exports totaling 3.42 billion U.S. dollars, according to the SWA tallies.

The SWA said Scotch whiskey exports to the Chinese mainland market have a lot of potential for growth, noting that the value of exports to the Chinese mainland soared  from 1.86 million U.S. dollars in 2000 to 85.47 million U.S. dollars in 2005.