German Beer Gross sales Resume Their Downward Development After a Publish-COVID Pickup

BERLIN (AP) — Gross sales by German beer brewers and distributors resumed a long-term downward development within the first six months of this 12 months after choosing up a bit in 2022 because of the tip of most COVID-19 restrictions, official figures confirmed Tuesday.

Gross sales dropped to 4.2 billion liters (1.1 billion gallons) within the January-June interval, 2.9% decrease than a 12 months earlier, the Federal Statistical Workplace mentioned. The determine consists of home gross sales and exports of German beer, in addition to beer imported from different European Union international locations on the market in Germany. It excludes alcohol-free beer and beer imported from international locations outdoors the EU.

Gross sales inside Germany, which accounted for 82% of the full, have been down 3.5% to three.4 billion liters (899 million gallons). Exports have been solely barely down — German brewers exported 404 million liters (106.7 million gallons) of beer to different international locations within the European Union, a 0.4% decline, and 347.9 million liters (91.9 million gallons) to nations outdoors the EU, 0.2% lower than a 12 months earlier.

German brewers have been combating a longer-term downward development fueled by well being considerations and different components, though final 12 months noticed a slight recovery after lockdowns shut eating places and bars for lengthy intervals in 2020 and 2021.

The general determine for the primary half of the 12 months is 12.2% decrease than a decade earlier, the statistics workplace mentioned.

The statistics workplace mentioned individually on Tuesday that greater than 474 million liters (125.2 million gallons) of alcohol-free beer have been produced in Germany final 12 months, almost twice as a lot as a decade earlier. However that compares with greater than 7.6 billion liters (2 billion gallons) of alcoholic beer.

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