Bulgaria Produces 1.3% of EU’s Beer in 2021, Output Down 2.8%

Jerusalem, 30 August, 2022 (TPS) -- LUXEMBOURG, 30.08.2022 (BTA)
Bulgaria’s production of alcoholic beer in 2021 reached 439.2 million liters, which corresponds to 1.3% of the total production of EU countries, according to the latest data of the European statistics agency, Eurostat, published Tuesday on its website. Bulgarian brewers produced 12.8 million liters or 2.8% less alcoholic beer last year compared to 2020 when volumes reached almost 452 million liters.

Exports of Bulgarian beer, both to EU and non-EU countries, fell to 10.3 million liters in 2021 compared to 19.7 million liters reported in 2020.

Imports of beer with an alcohol content above 0.5% into Bulgaria rose to 79.3 million liters last year, up from almost 78 million liters in 2020.

In 2021, the European Union produced 33.1 billion liters of alcoholic beer and 1.7 billion liters of low-alcohol (alcohol content below 0.5%) or fully non-alcoholic beer. This amounts to almost 78 liters of beer for every EU citizen.

Compared to 2020, last year saw an increase in beer production. Non-alcoholic beer production increased the most, by almost 20%, while alcoholic beer production increased by almost 3%.

Germany remains the EU’s leading beer producer with 7.5 billion liters last year, accounting for 23% of the total production of the Union. It is followed by Poland and Spain, with around 3.7 billion liters each, or 11% of the total EU production. The Netherlands remains in the fourth position with 2.5 billion liters or 7% of the total production.

The Netherlands is the leading exporter of beer (1.9 billion liters of alcoholic beer), accounting for 21% of the total European beer exports. The other largest exporters are Belgium with 1.7 billion liters, Germany with 1.6 billion liters and France and the Czech Republic with 0.5 billion liters each.