Production volumes of alcoholic beer in the European Union were flat in 2024, according to recent data from the bloc’s statistical office.
Findings from Eurostat show total beer production volumes reached 34.7 billion litres in 2024, a roughly 1% increase on the 34.3 billion litres booked the previous year.
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Production volumes of beer with over 0.5% abv grew just 0.6% to 32.7 billion litres last year.
By contrast, the production volumes of beer with less than 0.5% abv or no alcohol saw an 11.1% increase in volumes, reaching 2 billion litres.
Germany remained the EU’s largest producer of beer above 0.5% alcohol in 2024, contributing 7.2 billion litres, or 22.2% of the EU’s total.
Following Germany, Spain produced 4 billion litres, accounting for 12.3% of the bloc’s total production, while Poland produced 3.4 billion litres, representing 10.6%.
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By GlobalDataThe Netherlands and Belgium also ranked among the top five producers with 2.2bn litres and 2.1 billion litres, respectively.
The Netherlands retained its status as the top beer exporter in the EU, exporting a total of 1.5 billion litres of alcoholic beer in 2024, marking a 12% decrease from the previous year.
Germany and Belgium followed closely, each exporting 1.4bn litres, with Czechia and Ireland exporting 0.6bn litres and 0.5bn litres, respectively.
France continued to be the largest importer of beer containing alcohol, importing 0.8bn litres in 2024.
Italy followed closely with over 0.7 billion litres, while Spain, Germany each imported nearly 0.6 billion litres. The Netherlands imported nearly 0.5 billion litres.
While being recorded as the EU’s largest producer of beer, recent data from the country’s Federal Statistical Office Destatis shows domestic beer sales in Germany have fallen in the first half of this year.
In the first six months, sales volumes dropped 6.3% – a decline of 262 million litres – to about 3.9 billion litres in the first half of 2025, according to Destatis.
Destatis said this was the first time sales had dropped below 4 billion litres in a six-month period since 1993.
