Japan: Malt imports declined in the last five years

Malt demand is declining due to economic conditions and lower sales of full malt beer. Japanese beer consumption has been falling in the last years. In 1998, the Japanese drank 72 million hl of beer of which 13% was light beer. In 2004 this figure fell to 61 million hl of which 38% was light beer. Forecasts for 2005 are that all beer and ersatz beer sales will drop by 3 %, of which beer by 3,8 % and happo-shu by 16 %.

As a result Japanese malt imports have dropped from 591,000 metric tonnes in 2001-02 to only 508,000 metric tonnes in 2004-05. Japan may purchase for 2006 about 500 thousand tonnes of malt or slightly more, according to analysts’ estimations

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