Ireland’s 2019 beer consumption down 2%

Irish beer production fell slightly in 2019 to 8.2 million Hectolitres from 8.3 million HL the year before, putting Ireland in 11th place in Europe for beer production, one place higher than its 2018 position according to the recently-published European Beer Trends, the Brewers of Europe's summary statistical report for 2019.

 

The Brussels-based organisation that represents breweries across the Continent found Germany remaining at the top of Europe’s beer production ladder, brewing  91.6m HL while the UK took fourth position brewing 39.3 million HL.

But while we were in 11th place for beer production in 2019, we came 16th for beer consumption, down 2%, at 4.5 million HL and down one place in the EU table from 2018’s 4.6 million HL figure.

Germany topped the consumption charts too, sinking 82.9m HL of beer in 2019 (down from 2018’s 84.7m HL). The UK came second with 47.1m HL, down from 2018’s 47.8m HL.

At 77 litres, per capita beer consumption here kept us in ninth place, down two from 2018’s seventh place which we shared with Estonia and Slovenia on 80 litres.

The highest per capita beer consumers remain the Czechs on 142 litres.

The UK comes in in 14th place with 71 litres.

However it’s interesting to note that Ireland has slipped from third place to fourth for the on-trade’s share of the overall beer market.

2019 saw our on-trade share slip one percentage point from 64% to 63%.

Beer’s share of the Irish on-trade has been falling consistently from 67% in 2015, to 66% in 2016 to 65% in 2017.

Portugal has the highest on-trade share of the beer market at 70% (up from 69% in 2018) followed by Spain on 68% (up from 67% in 2018) and Italy on 64%.

The UK, in ninth position, reflects a similar decline in on-trade share of the beer market at 45%, slipping from 51% in 2013 to 50% in 2014 to 49% in 2015 to 48% in 2016 to 47% in 2017 to 46% in 2018.

 

Imports/Exports

Ireland’s beer imports rose in 2019 to 1.7 million HL from 2018’s 1.6 million figure which makes Ireland Europe’s eighth-largest beer importer, unchanged from 2018.

The UK remained Europe’s top importer on 9.8m HL, down from 2018’s 10.1m HL figure.

Ireland’s beer exports in 2019 took it up two places from seventh-largest to fifth-largest, going from 3.7m HL to 3.9m HL. Our exports have enjoyed constant growth since 2016 when we exported just 3.1m HL. The following year this rose to 3.5m HL.

Belgium remained the top beer exporter in 2019, exporting 18.2m HL while one place above Ireland, in fourth position, the UK exported 5.3m HL of beer in 2019.

Beer generated €421 million in Irish excise revenues in 2019, down from €430 million in 2018.