Beer market bounces back
The international beer market staged something of a recovery last year, with global beer consumption increasing by 2.4%, according to Canadean’s new Global Beer Trends report. It’s an improvement on the 0.5 per cent growth seen in 2009, but is still well below the 5 per cent-plus growth rates seen earlier in the decade.
However, beer consumption patterns differ widely across the globe, as reflected by regional growth rates. The Asian beer market grew by 6 per cent last year, and now accounts for over a third of global beer consumption. Africa, on the other hand, despite making up just over 5 per cent of the global beer market, registered an 8 per cent growth in volume in 2010.
Latin America also witnessed positive growth of over 3 per cent. In contrast, European beer volumes declined by just over 1 per cent in Eastern and Central Europe, and by almost 2% in Western Europe.
“China continues to be the engine of growth both in Asia and globally,” says a spokesman for Canadean. “Last year saw Chinese beer consumption increase by 6 per cent, and now one in every four pints of beer worldwide is consumed in China. Vietnam was the other star performer in Asia, delivering a 15 per cent increase in volume.
“The Western European beer market, meanwhile, would appear to be in long term volume decline. Overall per capita consumption is expected to remain below 30 litres on a global scale, however, suggesting that there is considerable room for growth for many years to come.”
