Beer production in the EU has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest data from Eurostat. EU countries produced over 34 billion litres of alcoholic beer and another 1.6 billion of beer with no or less than 0.5% alcohol in 2022. This represented a 7% increase over 2021 and almost fully back to the 2019 levels of 34.7 billion litres. Overall, almost 80 litres of beer, with or without alcohol, were produced for every EU inhabitant last year.
Germany continued to be the biggest producer, with 7.6 billion litres, equivalent of over 22% if total beer production in the EU. This means that about one in every four beers containing alcohol produced in the EU originated in Germany.
Germany was followed by Spain, with 3.9 billion litres produced (more than 11% of total EU production), Poland, with 3.7 billion litres (11%), the Netherlands, with 2.6 billion litres (almost 8%) and France and Italy, both with 2.0 billion litres (each 6%).
Although the Netherlands only ranked fourth as a producer, it continued to be the largest beer exporter in the EU. In 2022, the country exported a total (intra- and extra-EU) of 2.6 billion litres of beer containing alcohol, accounting for 27% of the total EU beer exports. Compared with 2021, this was an increase of 0.7 billion litres in beer exports.
The Netherlands was followed by Belgium (1.6 billion litres; 17%), Germany (1.5 billion litres; 16%), Czechia (0.6 billion litres; 6%) and Ireland (0.4 billion litres; 5%).
For imports, there was also no change compared with 2021, as France continued to be the largest importer of beer containing alcohol in 2022, with 0.9 billion litres, representing 17% of EU total (intra- and extra-EU) imports. The other big importers were Italy with more than 0.7 billion litres (14%), Germany with less than 0.7 billion (12%), the Netherlands with 0.6 billion litres (11%) and Spain with 0.5 billion litres (10%).
When it comes to main destinations for beer exports to non-EU countries, the United Kingdom (860 million litres; 21% of total extra-EU beer exports) and the United States (716 million litres; 18%) were the main markets, followed by China (349 million litres; 9%), Russia (271 million litres; 7%) and Canada (155 million litres; 4%).
Imports of beers containing alcohol from countries outside the EU were marginal compared to imports within the EU. When importing from non-EU countries, EU countries favoured British beer (290 million litres; 57% of all extra-EU imports of beer in 2022) and Mexican beer (99 million litres; 19%). Serbia (40 million litres; 8%), Ukraine (15 million; 3%) and China (11 million; 2%) followed on the top import partners list but with much smaller values.
