Recent data from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reveals a 6% drop in German beer exports compared to a decade ago, signaling a broader trend in the country’s beer industry.
The decline in exports mirrors a sharper decrease in domestic beer consumption, which has plummeted by 15.1% over the past ten years, as per Destatis.
The data comes just ahead of German Beer Day, scheduled for Wednesday, April 23.
Destatis reported that 1.45 billion liters of German beer were exported in 2024, down from 1.54 billion liters in 2014. Of last year’s exports, over half (55.7%) went to other EU countries, with the remaining 44.3% sent to non-EU nations.
The situation is even more concerning within Germany itself: domestic beer sales are forecasted to reach 6.8 billion liters in 2024, down from 8 billion liters a decade earlier.
Exports now represent 17.6% of total beer sales, a slight increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to 2014.
While Destatis did not offer specific reasons for the declining beer demand, the global trend of decreasing alcohol consumption, likely influenced by growing concerns over alcohol’s health effects, may be a contributing factor in Germany as well.
