Belgium exported less beer in 2025, with sales falling inside and outside the EU.

The country ships around 70% of its beer and, while international sales have often compensated for declining consumption at home, Belgium’s brewers saw both markets decline last year.

Export volumes fell 4.8% to 14.2 million hectolitres in 2025 after a slight increase 12 months earlier, according to data released by trade association Belgian Brewers.

Belgium's beer exports within the EU – which accounts for more than 85% of shipments – fell 3.4%. Outside the EU, volumes dropped 13.7%.

In Belgium, beer consumption declined for a third straight year, falling 3.2% to just under 6.2m hl. Retail sales, which made up almost 60% of domestic volumes, decreased 2.6%. Volumes sold through the horeca channel declined 4.1%.

Belgian Brewers said its data showed the consumption of beer in Belgium had fallen almost 20% in ten years.

“Being a brewer has never been an easy trade,” Belgian Brewers chair Lorin Pays and director Krishan Maudgal said in a joint statement. “2025 also put our sector to the test. International turbulence put exports under pressure. Domestically, beer consumption declined. New regulations made doing business more complex. The figures in this report clearly demonstrate that reality.

“The societal debate has also become sharper. Responsible enjoyment is increasingly being lumped together with problematic or excessive alcohol consumption. This equation is incorrect, unfair and does not do justice to the efforts of our sector.”

Digging deeper into the export data, sales to Belgium’s top two customers – France and Italy – declined but volumes sold to Spain increased more than 10%. Volumes to Germany climbed almost 19%.

Shipments to Belgium’s largest markets outside the EU fell. Exports to the UK, for example, declined more than 24% to under 167,000 hectolitres.