World: In 2003 there was a year-on-year increase in world’s beer output of 2.4%. Last year the world’s breweries produced about 1.478 billion hl of beer versus 1.443 billion hl in 2002. In 2003, by far the greatest growth in terms of volume was recorded in China. While the greatest growth in Europe was recorded in Russia (3.0m hl / 4.3%), the sharpest fall was in Germany (2.1m hl / 1.9%). Mexico’s growth of +2.7m hl / 4.3% was the main factor in the significant rise in output in Central America. In Asia, growth in China (18.5m hl / 7.8%) was offset by the sharp fall in Japan (-4.3m hl / -6.3%). The large increase in Africa comes mainly from Nigeria (1.6m hl / 22.9%).

16 July, 2004