Beer production in the European Union increased by 3% to 331 million hectoliters in 2021, according to figures now presented by the Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat).
The production volume of non-alcoholic beer even increased by 20% to a total of 17 million hectoliters.
While non-alcoholic beer production in 2019 could surpass the pre-pandemic level of 14 million hectoliters by 3 million hectoliters, alcoholic beer production is still 9 million hectoliters or 2.65% short of reaching the 2019 level of 340 million hectoliters.
In 2021 with around 23% by far the biggest producer of alcoholic beer was again Germany, followed by Poland and Spain with shares of 11% each and the Netherlands with 7%.
According to statistics, the leading exporter of alcoholic beer in the EU in 2021 - as in the previous year - was the Netherlands, with a total export volume of 19 million hectoliters or 21% of all EU beer exports, followed by Belgium with 17 million hectoliters, Germany with 16 million hectoliters and France and the Czech Republic with 5 million hectoliters each. The main customer among third countries was Great Britain with 9 million hectoliters or 22% of the total EU beer exports to non-European countries, followed by the USA with 7.7 million hectoliters.
Eurostat reports France as the largest beer importer among the Member States for the previous calendar year. The country imported a total of 8 million hectoliters of alcoholic beer from Member States and third countries, representing 16% of total EU imports. Italy and Germany each bought almost 7 million hectoliters of beer abroad. For imports from third countries, Member States preferred British beer. With a total of 2.5 million hectoliters, this accounted for 47% of all extra-EU imports of beer in 2021.
