EU: Beer production increases by 2.5 bln litres last year

August the 3rd is beer day, and according to Eurostat, in 2017, over 41 billion litres of beer containing alcohol were produced in the European Union (EU), 2.5 billion litres more than in 2016. The EU’s beer production was equivalent to almost 81 litres per inhabitant.

The top producer is Germany, country which owns a production of 8.1 billion litres (20 percent of the EU total production). In other words, about one in every five beers containing alcohol produced in the EU originated from Germany.

The second place is taken by the UK, with 5.6 billion litres produced, or 14 percent, followed by Poland (4 billion litres, or 10 percent), the Netherlands (3.9 billion litres, or 9 percent), Spain (3.6 billion litres, or 9 percent) and Belgium (2.4 billion litres or 6 percent).

Compared to 2016, the Netherlands (48 percent) recorded the highest increase in the production of beer containing alcohol, followed by the United Kingdom (14 percent) and Portugal (11 percent).

In contrast, the production of beer in Greece fell by 9 percent, followed by Slovakia (-5 percent), Bulgaria and Lithuania (both 4 percent).

The Netherlands exported 1.9 billion litres of beer containing alcohol in 2017. This made it the largest beer exporter of all EU Member States, ahead of Belgium and Germany (both 1.6 billion litres), followed by France (0.7 billion litres) and the United Kingdom (0.6 billion litres).

The United States was by far the main destination for beer exports to non-EU countries (1.1 billion litres of beer containing alcohol exported there in 2017, or 31percent of total extra-EU exports of beer), followed by China (520 million litres, 15 percent) and Canada (210 million litres, 6 percent).