August 22, 2013

Kirin Beer University Report
Global Beer Production by Country in 2012

Global Beer Production Reaches Record High for the 28 Consecutive Years, Helped by Continued Growth in Asia and Latin America

Kirin Brewery Company, Limited (President and CEO: Isozaki Yoshinori) runs the “Kirin Beer University,” a virtual university on the internet. It was established in July 2001 to inform our customers of the pleasure and deepness of beer. You can visit various “faculties” and “facilities” open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year that will show you how to enjoy drinking delicious beer and will offer interesting stock of knowledge about beer.

This time, we published a report on global beer production in main countries and by region for 2012. This report is based on findings from questionnaires sent to brewers associations around the world as well as on the latest industry statistics available overseas. Kirin has been tracking global beer production since 1974.

Topics

Global beer production reached around 190.70 million kiloliters in 2012 (up 0.9% from the previous year), marking its 28th consecutive year of growth.

On the regional basis, Asia remained the largest beer-producing region in the world for the fourth year in a row (up 0.5% year-on-year, capturing a 33.0% share of global production), contributing to the growth of world beer production along with Latin America, which came in as the third-largest beer-producing region (up 1.6% year-on-year, a 17.0% production share in the global market).

Checking up the data by country, we can see that China remained the world's largest beer producer for the 11th consecutive year (down 1.2% from 2011), followed by the United States (up 1.3% from 2011) and Brazil (up 1.5% from 2011). Japan remained at seventh place (producing 0.7% less beer than the previous year).

In 2012, global beer production reached 190.70 million kiloliters, an increase of about 1.77 million kiloliters (0.9%) from the previous year. If we compare the volume of the Tokyo Dome Stadium to a super-huge jug, this is equivalent to about 154 jugs (the volume of one jug with the size of Tokyo Dome is around 1.24 million kiloliters). World beer production has been recording increase for the 28 consecutive years since 1985.

The annual growth rate was 0.9%, which is close to those recorded just after the global financial crisis caused by the Lehman Shock, namely in 2008 (up 0.7%) and 2009 (up 0.8%), and less than in 2010 (up 2.2%) and 2011 (up 3.3%).

1. Global Beer Production by Region (Table 1)

As for the data by region, while Europe, Middle-East and Oceania recorded a fall in beer production, it went up in other regions.

In Asia, which remained the largest beer-producing region in the world for the fourth year in a row (up 0.5% from 2011), Thailand (up 15.0% from 2011), Vietnam (up 7.2% from 2011) and India (up 5.4% from 2011) contributed to the increase in beer production, but this growth was small due to China (down 1.2% from 2011).

Latin America, the third largest beer-producer in the world (up 1.6% from 2011), has seen the growth for ten consecutive years and Brazil contributed to this growth (up 1.5% from 2011) just like last year.

North America (up 1.2% from 2011) shifted to growth again for the first time in five years.

Africa (up 11.3% from 2011) has seen the 12th consecutive annual growth, thanks to the contribution by South Africa (up 2.0% from 2011) and Nigeria (up 22.5% from 2011).

2. Global Beer Production by Country (Table 2)

Brazil (up 1.5% from 2011) has seen the growth for four consecutive years and remained the world's third-largest beer producer for three years in a row, thus widening its lead over Russia, which came in fourth place (down 2.1% from 2011).

The countries that had made the list of the world's 10 largest beer producers for the previous year remained on the list for 2012 with the ranking order unchanged. Although China (down 1.2% from 2011) remained the top 1 for the 11th consecutive year, it suffered an annual decline for the first time in 23 years. Japan (down 0.7% from 2011) was ranked seventh.

3. Global Beer Production in 2012 Compared with Ten Years Ago (Table 3)

The volume of global beer production in 2012 had grown by around 46.48 million kiloliters (up 32.2%) compared with ten years ago.

China achieved the most important volume of growth (20.88 million kiloliters), followed by Brazil (4.68 million kiloliters) and Russia (2.71 million kiloliters). In terms of the growth rate, Nigeria (3.4 times), Vietnam (3.3 times) and India (3.2 times) experienced considerable growth.

• Note: Production volume in Japan is a combination of beer, low-malt beer, and no-malt beer.
• As for countries which had the data of the previous year modified on the occasion of the research carried out this year, we calculated the growth rate from the previous year by means of modified values.
• Source: Questionnaires sent to brewers associations in major countries (carried out by Kirin Brewery Company, Limited)
  The Barth Report Hops 2011/2012 published (BARTH-HAAS GROUP)

(Table 1) Global Beer Production by Region in 2012

■ Beer Production, Year-on-Year Change, and Production Share by Region

■ Global Beer Production by Region (%) in 2012

[Comments]

• Europe, Middle-East and Oceania recorded a decrease in beer production, while other regions saw growth.
• Asia remained the largest beer-producing region in the world for the fourth consecutive year (up 0.5% from 2011). Although Thailand (up 15.0% from 2011), Vietnam (up 7.2% from 2011) and India (up 5.4% from 2011) contributed to the increase in beer production, the overall growth was limited due to China (down 1.2% from 2011).
• Growth for ten consecutive years in Latin America.
• While production in Europe started to decline, North America picked up for the first time in five years.

(Table 2) Global Beer Production by Country in 2012

[Comments]

• Brazil has experienced production growth for four consecutive years, up 1.5% from the previous year. This trend is expected to continue, especially thanks to the World Cup and the Olympic Games scheduled respectively in 2014 and 2016.
• Although China remained the world’s largest beer producer for the 11th consecutive year, the production declined year-on-year for the first time in 23 years.

(Table 3) Global Beer Production by Country in 2012 Comparison with Ten Years Ago

[Comment]

• If we compare the world’s beer production in 2012 with that of ten years ago, the increase volume was around 46.48 million kiloliters (up 32.2%). The largest growth came from China, where beer production has increased by 20.88 million kiloliters during the past decade, followed by Brazil with an increase of 4.68 million kiloliters and Russia with an increase of 2.71 million kiloliters.