The FINANCIAL — In 2017, over 41 billion litres of beer containing alcohol were produced in the European Union (EU), 2.5 billion litres more than in 2016. The EU’s beer production was equivalent to almost 81 litres per inhabitant.
In addition, the EU produced nearly 900 million litres (2%) of beer which contained less than 0.5% alcohol or had no alcohol content at all.
Germany, top producer
Two-thirds of the beer containing alcohol produced in the EU came from six Member States. Germany was the top producer in 2017 with a production of 8.1 billion litres (or 20% of the EU total production). In other words, about one in every five beers containing alcohol produced in the EU originated from Germany. Germany was followed by the United Kingdom (5.6 billion litres produced, or 14%), Poland (4.0 bn litres, or 10%), the Netherlands (3.9 bn litres, or 9%), Spain (3.6 bn litres, or 9%) and Belgium (2.4 bn litres or 6%).
Compared with 2016, the Netherlands (+48%) recorded the highest increase in the production of beer containing alcohol, followed by the United Kingdom (+14%) and Portugal (+11%). In contrast, the production of beer in Greece fell by -9%, followed by Slovakia (-5%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (both – 4%).
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