Belgium: Beer consumption increases to almost pre-pandemic levels

For the third year in a row, Belgian beer exports have gone down. However, beer consumption in Belgium increased by 7.5 % – getting nearer to pre-pandemic levels.

At 6.93 million hectolitres, Belgian beer production is almost back to its 2019 level (7.06 million hectolitres) and as such the bitter Covid pill is almost swallowed, sector organisation Belgian Brewers states in its annual report. The 7.5 % increase was much needed, as the past thirty years have seen a “structural decline”. Indeed, Belgians now drink almost a third less beer than twenty years earlier.

The two sales channels BB distinguishes between show very different evolutions: + 42.4 % in hospitality, – 8 % in retail. Obviously, the lockdown measures that thoroughly ruined 2021 (the base for comparison) are no stranger to this. Compared to 2019, retail sales are already higher, but those in hospitality are still about 5 % lower than before the pandemic.

By far the biggest part (70 %) of beer produced in Belgium still goes abroad, even though beer exports also continue to fall. The 5.5 % drop in exports (the third in a row) is mainly due to a sharp fall in exports to countries such as the United States: this is said to be partly because Stella Artois is increasingly produced in the US itself.

2022 also saw the birth of 32 new breweries, bringing the total in Belgium to 430. Together they produce as many as 1,600 different beers, the industry body proudly reports.