Mineral water sales in 2020 - mineral springs hold their own in the Corona year

"The German mineral water industry as a whole has come through the crisis economically sound in the Corona year 2020, even though the lockdown measures have had a varying impact on mineral water companies, particularly with the closure of the catering and hotel sectors. Despite the decline in sales that could be expected as a result, suppliers of the natural product mineral water have been able to hold their own well," comments VDM Managing Director Udo Kremer.

Especially in uncertain times, consumers appreciate the reliability and high quality of natural mineral water. When bottling from the springs, the approximately 200 predominantly small and medium-sized mineral water companies always ensure the highest safety standards in order to maintain the purity of mineral water as a natural product. Mineral water is the only foodstuff in Germany that requires official approval. The approval process involves more than 200 individual tests. This guarantees the purity and quality of mineral water from the source to the consumer's table.

Per capita consumption of mineral and medicinal water in 2020 remained at a high level of 133.8 liters, but fell by 5.9 liters compared with 2019. The most popular type of mineral water in 2020 was again low-carbonated mineral water ("medium"), with sales of around 4.5 billion liters, followed by carbonated mineral water ("sparkling" or "classic"), with a bottling volume of around 3.7 billion liters. Sales of non-carbonated mineral water were on a par with the previous year at around 2.0 billion liters. With a bottling volume of around 82 million liters, medicinal water recorded an increase in sales of 2.2 percent.

In addition to mineral and medicinal waters, German mineral springs bottled around 3.2 billion liters of soft drinks in 2020 (- 5.2 percent). These include spritzers, lemonades, fizzy drinks and wellness drinks based on mineral water.