Belgians Drinking Less Beer As Belgium Exports Rise

As beer’s changing international landscape continues to evolve we now learn Belgians are drinking less of their trademark ales, even as their beer exports rise.

Here’s the deal…

According a report from the Belgian Brewers, one of the oldest professional associations in the world, the volume of Belgian beer sold at home fell by 1.6% in 2017, this after a painful drop of 3.5% the year before.

The association also noted that in the 1980’s Belgian’s consumed about 440 glasses of domestically produced beer a year, and that today that number is down to 240 250ml glasses annually.

But even as Belgium experiences a 30-year decline in domestic beer drinking, its exports continue to rise. Overseas sales of Belgian beer grew by 8.7% last year and 17%  of that growth was outside the EU.

The US is now Belgian beer’s largest export market, followed by its neighbors France and the Netherlands. But Belgian beer exports to China grew by 8.3% last year, while sales to South Korean consumers soared – up an amazing by 66%!

The report did show that Belgian drinkers are turning away from pilsners and gravitating towards higher-quality drinks. And that this “less is better’ philosophy explains why the number of breweries in Belgium grew as cites “from 224 to 261 in 2017.”

Belgian Brewers’ Chairman Jean-Louis Van de Perre spins the federation’s recent findings this way…

“In 2017, the consumption of beer in Belgium has fallen. This drop is due, among other things, to the difficult situation in the hotel and restaurant industry, and a shift in the consumption of pilsner beers to special beers. Beers continue to meet with great success abroad and have never been so popular.”

And as The Guardian reports Belgium’s declining beer consumption is mirrored by other western countries, including the UK, where sales were down 1.7% in 2017 (a two year low)  as well as in the US, where overall beer consumption dropped by 1.1% last year.