- Bavarian brewers are selling more beer against the trend
The first half of the year was good for Bavarian brewers. Unlike the nationwide trend, they managed to increase their beer sales by 1.8 percent to 1.19 billion liters, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. Nationwide, this figure decreased by 0.6 percent. "We're doing relatively well - but at an overall unsatisfying level," said the managing director of the Bavarian Brewers' Association, Lothar Ebbertz. In recent years, brewers have had to accept declining sales. The difference is even more pronounced in domestic sales: Bavaria increased by 2.4 percent, while Germany as a whole decreased by 0.9 percent.
Non-alcoholic beer is also developing positively, although it is not included in the figures from the Federal Statistical Office. Up to and including May, Bavarian breweries had seen a 15 percent increase in this area, according to Ebbertz. Factors contributing to this include better summer weather. He has been observing this growth for some time, but it has recently intensified. After reaching around 8 percent last year, Ebbertz expects to exceed the 10 percent mark this year.
The current hype around the new non-alcoholic light beer from the traditional Munich brewery Augustiner may be contributing to this, but non-alcoholic wheat beer still dominates in Bavaria, accounting for around 60 percent - more than all other non-alcoholic beer types combined.
However, Ebbertz expects more breweries to introduce non-alcoholic light beer to the market. This is not entirely straightforward: light beer is a beer type that does not forgive mistakes in the brewing process, which is likely to also apply to its non-alcoholic variant.
The European Union has shown interest in the increasing trend of non-alcoholic beer sales in Bavaria, as it could potentially be a significant market for their beer market. The success of Bavarian brewers in increasing their beer sales by 1.8 percent, despite a nationwide decrease, has also caught the attention of the European Union.
