Italy: Beer accounts for 0.5% of Italy’s GDP

Beer is one of the fastest-growing categories in the Italian food and beverage sector, with growth of 18% between 2014 and 2017, compared to 3.2% for the wider FMCG sector, a study has found.

Last year, beer accounted for 1.2% of total expenditure on food products in Italy, according to the data, published by the Beer Observatory of the Birra Moretti Foundation.

The data shows that the brewing sector in Italy is worth €8.8 billion and accounts for 0.5% of GDP.

Last year, beer sales in the retail channel (58.8% of the total) amounted to 9.2 million hectolitres (+19.8%, compared to 2010), bringing in €1.6 billion in revenues (+31.8%).

The specialty beer category accounted for much of this growth, with the segment growing by 49.5% by volume and 69.7% in value between 2010 and 2017.

However, traditional lager beer also posted double-digit growth (+15.2% in volume and +21.4% in value) and dominates the large-scale retail channel (83.3% in volume and 71.8% in value).

Beer accounts for 47% of Italian alcoholic beverage production (€18.9 billion) in value terms.

The weight of the retail segment in beer sales has grown by 40% in the past 20 years. Today, 58.8% of beer is sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets (compared with 42% in 1997 and 50% in 2007).

The HoReCa sector accounts for 41% of beer consumption, meanwhile, and generates 75% of the total revenues of the Italian brewery sector.

However, there are also clouds on the horizon. With European production declining and the escalation of raw-material costs, such as barley, the Italian beer-brewing sector is facing increased costs.

For example, domestic malt production covers only 40% of the sector's needs, with the remaining 60% coming from imports.

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