34.3 billion litres of beer produced in the EU in 2023

In 2023, EU countries produced 32.5 billion (bn) litres of beer containing alcohol and 1.8bn litres of beer with less than 0.5% alcohol or with no alcohol content at all, totalling 34.3bn litres. 

Compared with 2022, the production of beer with alcohol in the EU decreased by 5% (-1.7bn litres). When it comes to beer without alcohol, there was an increase of 13.5% compared with 2022 (+0.2 bn litres).

Concerning the production of beer with alcohol, in 2023, Germany continued to be the top producer with 7.2bn litres (22.3% of the total EU production). 

Germany was followed by Spain, with 4.0bn litres produced (12.4% of total EU production), Poland with 3.5bn litres (10.8%), the Netherlands with 2.4bn litres (7.5%) and Belgium with 2.0bn litres (6.3%). 
 

Source dataset: DS-056120

Netherlands top exporter and France top importer

As in previous years, trade data show that the Netherlands continued to lead as the top exporter of beer containing alcohol in 2023. The Netherlands exported a total (intra- and extra-EU) of 1.8 bn litres of beer containing alcohol in 2023, accounting for 21.5% of the total EU countries’ beer exports. Compared with 2022, this EU country saw a decrease of 0.1bn litres in beer exports. 

The Netherlands was followed by Germany and Belgium (both exporting 1.4bn litres), Czechia and Ireland (both 0.5bn litres).

For imports, France continued to be the largest importer of beer containing alcohol in 2023, with 0.9 bn litres, representing 17.1% of EU total (intra- and extra-EU) imports. The other big importers were Italy with more than 0.7bn litres, and Spain, the Netherlands and Germany each with almost 0.6bn litres. 
 

Source dataset: DS-045409 

UK was the biggest exporter to and importer from EU

When it comes to main destinations for beer (with alcohol) exports to non-EU countries, the United Kingdom (0.8bn litres; 22.8% of total extra-EU beer exports) and the United States (0.6 bn litres; 16.1%) were the main partners, followed by Russia (0.3 bn litres; 8.4%), China (0.3 bn litres; 7.3%), and Cuba (0.2 bn litres; 5.2%).

Imports of beers containing alcohol from countries outside the EU are marginal compared to imports within the EU. When importing from non-EU countries, EU countries favoured British beer (0.3 bn litres; 57.6% of all extra-EU imports of beer in 2023 and Mexican beer (0.1 bn litres; 17.2%). 

This news article marks International Beer Day, celebrated each year on the first Friday of August.

For more information

• Thematic section on PRODCOM - statistics by product
• Database of statistics on PRODCOM - statistics by product
• Thematic section on international trade in goods
• Database of statistics on international trade in goods

Methodological notes:

• Ranking based on available and non-confidential data.
• The Netherlands and Poland: values used refer to “the production quantity on own account” (code OWNPRODQNT), because total sold production (the sum of the production on own account and the production under sub-contracted operations) data is not available due to confidentiality.
• Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta: exempt from providing data on production due to their economic sizes.
• Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes: 220,300 beer made from malt

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