The Global Beer Market - Green Shoots of Recovery? - Beer - 2011   

Danes Hill, London - Oct 24, 2011 -- The international beer market staged something of a recovery in 2010 with global beer consumption increasing by 2.4%, according to Canadean’s new Global Beer Trends report. This marks a dramatic improvement on the 0.5% growth seen in 2009, but is still well below the 5%+ growth rates seen earlier in the decade.

However, beer consumption patterns differ widely across the globe and regional growth rates reflect this. The Asian beer market grew by 6% last year to reach 650 mhl, and now accounts for over a third of global beer consumption. Africa, on the other hand, despite making up just over 5% of the global beer market, performed very strongly, registering an 8% growth in volume in 2010. Latin America also witnessed positive growth of over 3%. In contrast, European beer volumes declined by just over 1% in Eastern and Central Europe, and by almost 2% in Western Europe. Volumes in North America fell by just over 1% whilst the Australasian beer market only achieved 1% growth.

Drilling down further into individual markets, Canadean’s latest Global Beer Trends report reveals further variations in the overall growth pattern. China continues to be the engine of growth both in Asia and globally. 2010 saw Chinese beer consumption increase by 6%, and now one in every four pints of beer worldwide is consumed in China. Beer volumes in India grew by a dramatic 17% in 2010, but per capita consumption remains below 2 litres. Vietnam was the other star performer in Asia delivering a 15% increase in volume. Brazil continued to lead the Latin American pack and posted an 8% volume increase. Markets in East & Central Europe continued to struggle, with consumption in the Czech Republic declining by 7% and Romania and Serbia both seeing volume declines on around 5%. The decline in Russian beer consumption slowed to around zero %, whilst consumption in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) actually increased. In Western Europe, Denmark and the UK saw the biggest volume losses with consumption falling by 6% and 4% respectively. Every single Western European market suffered a loss in volume in 2010, even those markets in Southern Europe like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, which had previously shown growth.

On a global scale, per capita consumption remains relatively low at just 27 litres. The Czechs remain the world’s leading beer drinkers with 135 litres per capita beer consumption in 2010. However this is a long way below the 160 litre level that the Czechs registered until the current economic crisis hit in 2008. Austria, Germany and Ireland are the only other markets where beer consumption exceeds 100 litres. Despite witnessing extremely strong growth, per capita consumption of beer in India remains one of the lowest in the world at just 1.5 litres. 

Editor’s Note: