39 billion litres of beer were produced in the EU last year. That’s 400 million more than 2015, the European Statistics Office Eurostat revealed on Friday. That’s the equivalent of 76 litres per habitant. Belgium alone produced 2.3 billion litres (6%), the sixth highest production rate.
Two thirds of all the alcoholic beer was produced in six member states, with Germany coming top with 8.3 billion litres (21%). Next is the UK (5.1 billion, 13%), followed by Poland (4 billion, 10%), Spain (3.7 billion, 9%) and the Netherlands (2.6 billion, 7%).
The Netherlands is the biggest exporter of beer, at 1.9 billion litres. They are closely followed by Germany (1.7 billion) and Belgium (1.5 billion).
The US is by far the biggest import market for the EU (1.1 billion, 34% of the total European export), followed by China (525 million, 16%) and Canada (202 million, 6%).
The import of non-European beverages remains low. Member states opt mainly for Mexican beers (179.5 million litres, just over half of the imports). The next popular are Siberian beers (46.9 million, 13%), then American beers (36.5 million, 10%), Belorussian beers (20.6 million, 6%), Chinese beers (16.4 million, 4%) and Russian beers (11.6 million, 3%).
900 million litres of beer containing less than 0.5% or no alcohol came from European breweries in 2016.
(Source: Belga)
