Domestic volume sales of German beer reached a record low in 2013, but demand from outside Europe is up, according to new figures. 

Sales by volume of Germany-produced beer fell 2% to 94.6m hectolitres in the country last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), reported yesterday. The market for domestic brewers has been in decline since 2007 and sales are at their lowest since reunification in 1990. 

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The German Brewers Federation blamed the drop on “an over-long winter and a short summer”. 

However, the group said there was “encouraging trends” such as increased demand for Germany-produced beer in China and the US.   

Germany still has around 1,300 breweries producing about 5,000 different beers.  

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“Despite rising production costs, an enormous price pressure in the market, the increasingly fierce competition in trade and again declining sales figures, the ‘Beer Nation Germany’ in a European comparison is still at a very high level of production and consumption,” the federation said. 

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Looking ahead, the group said it expects the “trend towards an increasing variety and new, successful products will continue in the premium segment of the German beer market in 2014”. 

Earlier this month, it emerged that five German breweries are facing fines totalling EUR106.5m (US$145.6m) after being found guilty of fixing the price of beer in the country.