Germany’s annual beer sales down again despite European Championship

Berlin, Feb 3: German beer sales declined last year even as the country hosted the European Football Championship, continuing a long-term downward trend that has seen sales drop by more than 10 per cent in the past decade to their lowest level since at least the early 1990s.
Official figures released Monday showed that German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.3 billion litres of beer last year, which was a 1.4 per cent decline on the previous year. The figure doesn’t include non-alcoholic beer and beer imported from outside the European Union (EU).
The latest figure was not as steep as the 4.5% drop seen in 2023, when sales resumed their downward slide after a recovery at home and in the EU following the end of COVID-19 restrictions. But, after years in which sales have mostly dropped, they were 13.7 per cent lower last year than they were in 2014.
German brewers have been struggling with a long-term downward trend fuelled by health concerns and other factors.
Germany hosted the annual football competition, a magnet for beer-drinking fans, in June and July last year. It coincided in part with unusually wet summer weather, which appears to have kept people away from beer gardens. (AP)