Canada: Beer Canada reports industry results for 2016

2016 proved to be an interesting year for the Canadian beer industry, Beer Canada said in its latest annual report Industry Trends 2016.

The number of brewing facilities across the country increased by 20.3% from 644 in 2015 to a historical high of 775 in 2016. Over half of the 775 brewing facilities are located in either Ontario or Québec. In Canada, the number of brewing facilities per every 100,000 drinking age adults, increased by 18.8% from 2.3 to 2.7 breweries for 2016 over the previous year. Using the same per capita measure, New Brunswick holds the title for the most breweries with 8.1, followed by Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan with 5.2 and 4.6 respectively. Coming in last was Manitoba, with 0.7.

While the number of brewing facilities continues to climb, national production and national sales volumes have declined. Domestic production fell 2.4% from 22.8 million hectolitres (hl) in 2015 to 22.3 million hl in 2016. Over the same period, domestic sales declined 0.7% from 19.0 million hl to 18.8 million hl, while import sales increased 1.1% from 3.4 million hl to 3.5 million hl. In total, national sales fell 0.4% from 22.44 million hl in 2015 to 22.35 million hl in 2016.

While the imports share of the Canadian beer market continues to grow, domestic brewers still account for 85% of the beer consumed in Canada - a contrast when compared with wine and spirits consumption. Domestic wine accounts for 33% of Canada’s wine market and domestic spirits account for 57% of Canada’s spirits market.

In 2016, per capita consumption of beer in Canada stood at 77.1 litres, down 2.9% from 2015. Newfoundland has the highest per capita consumption rate at 96.3 litres, followed by Quebec and Alberta with 83.3 litres and 78.9 litres respectively.

In 2016, national can sales rose 5.8%, while bottle and keg sales declined by 9.1% and 0.5%. In total, cans currently hold 56% share of the Canadian beer market, with bottles and kegs holding the remaining 33.8% and 10.2% respectively. This is a stark contrast from just five years ago, when bottles accounted for 47% of the Canadian beer market, cans 43% and kegs 10%.

In 2016, a total of 3.2 billion cans, 2.1 billion bottles and 41.1 million kegs of beer were sold in Canada.

2016 also saw the price of beer rise nationally by 1.6%, while the price of wine and spirits rose by 1.5% and 1.3%.

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