6 days ago
Germany loses top spot as Europe's largest beer maker
Germany has been knocked out of the top five of the world's largest beer producers, according to the latest industry report by the world's largest hop trader BarthHaas in Nuremberg.
The number five spot was taken by Russia this year, which surpassed Germany in volume of beer produced for the first time.
This also means that Germany is no longer Europe's largest beer producer, a title it has held since 2013.
According to the author of the report, the decisive reason for the change is that beer production in Russia increased by around nine percent to 9.1 billion litres. In Germany, on the other hand, it fell by one percent to 8.4 billion litres.
Five years ago, Germany produced around 1.4 billion litres more than Russia. In the years since, production in Russia has risen rapidly while declining slightly in Germany.
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The BarthHaas Managing Director adds that Russia has seen a large increase in beer production in part because the country is importing less
beer
than in recent years - following sanctions and trade tensions related to the country's war of aggression against Ukraine - so domestic production has been boosted.
An industry in decline
A declining trend in beer consumption in Germany, coupled with rising costs for producers, has put an increasing strain on German brewers and resulted in a slow but steady decrease in production.
View from the roof of the Faust brewery over Miltenberg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andreas Drouve
The brewery landscape in Germany is highly fragmented compared to other countries. According to Statista there are over 1,500 breweries in Germany, most of which produce just a handful of different beers and primarily serve their local communities.
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The largest German brewery, the Radeberger Group, is only in 23rd place worldwide.
Small breweries in particular, have been hit hard by rising costs in recent years.
"The figures show how great the challenges are for our brewing industry," Holger Eichele, Managing Director of the German Brewers' Association told DPA.
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He added that Germany, like many European countries, is "struggling with declining consumption".
Some brewers have increasingly turned to producing alcohol free beer. Consumption of those products has increased in recent years, although not quite fast enough to offset the decline in consumption of beer overall.
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BarthHaas sees demand in the traditional beer countries of the western industrial nations declining overall. This appears to be driven by a combination of aging populations, competition from a greater variety of beverages and declining purchasing power in economically difficult times.
The world's largest brewers
China leads the world in terms of sheer litres of beer brewed, having produced 34 billion litres in 2024.
The US is second with 18 billion litres. Both countries saw production decline by about five percent in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Brazil and Mexico took the 3rd and 4th positions, with 14.7 and 14.5 billion litres produced respectively.
Beer production declined slightly around the world in 2024. Globally a total of 187.5 litres were produced.
Germany still leads the world in the production of hops, the bitter herb which is one of the three ingredients used for beer production.
According to BarthHaas, 46,536 tons were harvested in Germany in 2024, while the USA, currently the world's number two, came in at 39,995 tons.
With reporting by DPA.
