British gin exports smashed prior records last year with sales overseas worth $588 million, according to numbers released last week by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.

This represents a 12% increase from 2015 to 2016.

British gin exports have gone up 32% in five years, the WSTA says, adding the equivalent value of $281 million since 2012. Volume sales have also risen by 36%.

“The ‘Great British Gin Take Off’ has grown into a global phenomenon,” says Miles Beale, WSTA chief executive, in a press release. “The quality of the gin combined with the world’s love for brand Britain has seen British gin breaking records both at home and abroad.”

Forty four new distilleries opened in the U.K in 2016, meaning that exactly 100 new licences have been issued in the last two years.

The U.S. accounts for 59% of non-EU exports of British gin, by volume.

Beale also called for the U.K. government to cut the country’s excise tax to spur further growth.