Beer market under pressure worldwide

The brewing industry worldwide suffered from the generally difficult economic situation in 2023. Global beer production fell by 0.9% to 1.88 billion hectoliters. This is according to the latest BarthHaas report presented by the world's leading hop specialist.

The bottom line is that hopes for a sustained recovery in the industry were not fulfilled. "After recording slight growth in 2022 despite adverse conditions, we also expected a small increase for 2023. However, the costs for energy, raw materials, packaging, logistics and labor remained at a high level and weighed on breweries' business in many countries," BarthHaas Managing Director Peter Hintermeier explained to the press.

The German brewing industry was weaker than the global market: according to the report, beer output in 2023 fell by 3.3% year-on-year to 84.89 million hectoliters. However, Germany, with its almost 1,500 breweries, remains in fifth place in the international ranking of the world's largest brewing nations. As in the previous year, places 1 to 4 are occupied by China, the USA, Brazil and Mexico. Together, the top 5 producing countries account for almost 50 percent of beer production internationally.

The European market declined slightly: a total of 511.1 million hectolitres of beer were produced there were produced there - 1.7 percent less than in the previous year. The decline was mainly due to the fall in production in the UK (-8.9%) and Poland (-5.3%). The USA also suffered a significant drop in 2023: Beer production there fell by 5.6% to 193.0 million hectoliters. This makes the United States the only producing country on the American continent with a decline. In the other largest beer beer supplier countries in the Americas - Brazil and Mexico - beer production rose by one percent each to to 148.9 million hectoliters and 142.4 million hectoliters respectively.

A forecast for the global beer market in 2024 is difficult to make, said Thomas Raiser, Managing Director of BarthHaas: "The brewing industry is still feeling the effects of the war in Ukraine. Companies along the entire supply chain are still suffering from high costs. Consumers in many countries are groaning under the burden of high inflation. We therefore only expect beer output to remain stable in the current year, but there is no clear trend for the future."