Highlights of the European
beer market (EU-27)
1 | Highlights
Beer production has been decreasing since 2008.
Consumption of beer in the European Union
continues to fall. It decreased from 374 million
hectolitres in 2008 to 343 million hectolitres in 2010.
Beer sales in the hospitality sector
(bars, restaurants, events, etc.) declined by 15%
and in off-trade (retail outlets) sales fell by 4% since
2008, resulting in a consumption value of 106 billion
euro (including VAT).
Resultant job losses were not compensated for
by the increase of number of breweries in 2010
in the European Union, since these were mainly
microbreweries.
Nevertheless, the EU remains one of the major beer
producing territories in the world. In 2010 the total
of 3,638 breweries in the EU produced 383 million
hectolitres of beer.
The effects of the global economic situation (i.e. a
decrease in production and consumption, as well
as loss of jobs caused by the beer industry) are
more prominent in Eastern Europe than in Western
European countries.
01
2 | Production
In 2010, 3,638 breweries (including microbreweries)
produced a total of 383 million hectolitres of beer in the
European Union. In 2008 production totaled 408 million
hectolitres (minus 6 percent).
Europe maintains a strong position as one of the world’s
most important beer producers (403 million hectolitres),
as compared with Russia (101 million hectolitres), Brazil
(122 million hectolitres), the United States (207 million
hectolitres)
1
and China (466 million hectolitres)
1
. In 2008
China passed the EU as the biggest beer producer in
the world.
European beer brands are sold worldwide, either brewed
in Europe and exported, or produced abroad mainly by
subsidiaries of the larger European brewing companies
or under licence by other brewers in those countries.
A signifcant number of independent small- and medium-
sized brewing companies and microbreweries contribute
to the rich variety of beer brands available to consumers
worldwide.
Despite the decrease in production, the total number
of breweries (including microbreweries) in Europe was
higher in 2010 (3,638) than in 2008 (3,071 breweries).
The number of breweries is somewhat underestimated,
because complete fgures could not be provided by some
countries. This means that the number of breweries is
likely to be even higher than that presented. Although
exact fgures are not available, we estimate that over
70% of the 3,638 breweries in Europe are microbreweries.
In the European Union, Germany has the largest number
of breweries (1,325). Six other Member States have more
than 100 breweries each : United Kingdom (824), Italy
(353), Austria (172), the Czech Republic (145), Belgium
(135), Denmark (120) and Poland (103).
1
Source : Canadean Global Beer Trends 2010, October 2010
13
The European beer market