German beer sales continued their downward trend, dropping 4.5% last year. The Federal Statistical Office revealed that German breweries sold approximately 84 million hectoliters of beer in 2023, excluding non-alcoholic beer and imports from outside the EU.
Thus, the overall market performed even worse than the leading German beer brands that lost about 4% (4.5 Mio. hl) last year (inside.beer, 27.1.2024)
This decline of the overall market follows a 2.7% increase in 2022, driven by post-COVID-19 recovery (inside.beer, 24.1.2023). However, both domestic and EU demand decreased again in 2023, with sales within Germany falling by 4.2% to 6.9 billion liters. Exports also saw a drop of 5.9%, including a significant 9.6% decrease in sales to non-EU countries like China and Russia.
Since 2018, the German brewing industry has lost over 10 million hectoliters. December 2023 showed little reason for optimism, with domestic sales decreasing by 6.9% and exports by 9.2%. Beer mixed drinks also continued their decline, with an annual decrease of 9.2% to only 4 million hectoliters.
