Bulgaria has 10th-highest beer consumption per capita in EU – Brewers of Europe
The consumption of beer per capita in Bulgaria in 2018 was 75 litres, the 10th-highest in the European Union, according to the 2019 edition of The Brewers of Europe’s Annual European Beer Trends Statistics Report.
Bulgaria had 27 active brewing companies and 29 active breweries.
There were 16 microbreweries in Bulgaria in 2018, rising from five in 2012.
Bulgaria ranked low among the European countries listed as beer exporters. At 186 000 hectolitres, it was in 20th place.
The report showed consumption of beer in Bulgaria as having risen between 2012 and 2018.
In an explanatory note, the report said that Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Slovenian and Spanish ‘beer’ comprises alcohol-free beer, non-alcohol and low alcohol beers and beer mixes (including Radlers).
There are now more than 10 000 breweries in the EU, the report said, adding that both the production and consumption of beer have gradually grown year on year for the last five years.
Beer production volumes have surpassed the 400 million hectolitre mark in the EU for the first time in a decade.
“Consumption rose in every single country in 2018, with consumers able to choose from a more varied, more specialised range of beers. As some consumers switch towards lower strength products such as beer, and on certain occasions towards non- and lower alcohol within the beer category, this beer growth is coinciding with a decline both in overall alcohol volumes and in harmful drinking in Europe,” The Brewers of Europe said.
In the 2019 edition of the report, many national narratives are also evident. Poland is now the second largest beer producer – swapping places with the UK.
France alone has increased the number of breweries in the country by 45 per cent year-on-year, from 1100 to 1600. Slovenia and Ireland saw their brewery numbers rise by 50 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively.
Exports have once again increased, with Belgium remaining the largest dispatcher of beer within the EU, just ahead of Germany, while the Netherlands continues to export about 40 per cent of its beer production to other parts of the globe.
(Main photo: Pavlo Araujo/sxc.hu)
