EU: Non- and low-alcohol beer making huge leaps to conquer more market share

Alcohol-free and low-alcohol beer production in the EU jumped by 13% from 2022 to 2023, while the share of traditional brews declined. How large is the gap now?

Although the EU is producing more and more low-alcohol (less than 0.5% of alcohol content) or zero-alcohol beer, the vast majority of beer in the bloc remains alcoholic, Euronews reported on November 15.

In 2023, traditional beer accounted for around 95% of beer production across the bloc, at over 32bn litres. That's against only 1.8bn litres of alcohol-free or low-alcohol beer.

However, non-traditional beer is making huge leaps to bridge the gap, Eurostat numbers show.

From 2022 to 2023, non-traditional beer production rose by over 13% while traditional brew production went down by 5%.

Germany dominates the continent's beer market on all fronts.

It remains by far the EU's biggest traditional brewer, accounting for 22% of the EU's total output, followed by Spain at 12%.

Germany also places first for alcohol-free or low-alcohol beer, with around 30% (556m litres), followed again by Spain at 14% (253m), the Netherlands (202mn), France (161mn), the Czech Republic (117m) and Romania (85m).

In terms of exports, the Netherlands is the top EU seller of traditional beer, accounting for 21.5% of EU sales outside the bloc.

Despite Brexit, the UK is the main destination for EU beers, accounting for 23% of total exports. The second biggest export partner is the US (16.1%) followed by Russia (8.4%), China (7.3%) and Cuba (5.2%).

When it comes to imports from outside the bloc, British beer is the most imported in the EU (57.6%), followed by Mexican beer (17.2%).

In terms of imports, France remains the largest importer of alcoholic beer, with 17.1% of the EU's total.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .