Germans have seen cheaper, sunnier and smokier days
We just heard about this from the Brits and zee Germans are hurting for beer customers. Hotter days may call for more beer drinking but ultimately it’s the rising prices, the “health” factor and a few things not mentioned below, the trend to move expand drinkers pallets to other brews, wines and hard cocktails that have contributed to the declining beer sales and that bars are not adapting to change well (as noted also in the Brit article).
BERLIN – German beer sales declined in the first half of this year as price rises and newly introduced restrictions on smoking in bars and restaurants added to a long-term decline, government figures showed Wednesday.
Germany’s brewers sold 10.93 billion pints, or 5.17 billion liters, of beer between January and June, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was a decline of 1.7 percent — 190 million pints, or 90 million liters — from the first half of last year.
It pointed to the weather — much of Germany had a poor early summer — as one factor in the latest decline.
On top of that came higher prices — a result of rising energy costs and higher prices for hops and malt — and partial bans on smoking in bars and restaurants that have gradually taken effect across the country.
Beer consumption in Germany has been falling steadily for more than a decade, a trend that experts have attributed to an increasingly health-conscious public.
Sales of beer mixed with soft drinks or fruit juices were unchanged in the first half at 486 million pints, or 230 million liters, the statistical office said.
Wednesday’s figures did not include alcohol-free beer or imports from outside the European Union. Of the total sales, 85 percent were within Germany.
Exports to other countries in the 27-nation EU declined by 2.5 percent in the first half, while exports to non-EU countries were down 7.9 percent.