Croatia: Craft breweries aspiring to increase market share from current 2-3%

Beers produced by craft- and microbreweries are getting more and more popular in Croatia, and currently some 80 breweries of this kind are aspiring to increase their market share from the current 2%-3% to 10% in the coming years, Total Croatia News reported on January 21.

According to the head of the Croatian association of craft and microbreweries, Krešo Marić, the average Croatian beer lover can recognise a difference between craft beers and lagers, and in this context he says that it is like comparing prosciutto to processed meat.

In Croatia, the annual beer consumption is 83 litres per capita, and the ranking is topped by the Czech Republic where the average annual consumption is 143 litres per capita.

The amount of beer production in Croatia is 3.4 million hectolitres annually, which puts the country on the 22nd place in the European Union.

The brewing and consumption of craft beer in the total production and consumption in Croatia is between 2% and 3%, according to Marić.

Since 2013 when the first craft- and microbreweries appeared in the country, at least 400 jobs have been created in that segment, Marić says.

Craft brewing enhances reputation of the whole beer sector, and therefore some of the big breweries have started producing types of craft beers recently, he added.

Marić said that, for instance, in Italy, over the last ten years the number of craft breweries has increased to about 1,000 and in Slovenia to more than 130.

Some other protagonists in small brewing sector in Croatia believe that the market in Croatia is becoming more and more "mature" for craft beers, however, the expansion on the market is likely to slow down in comparison to the growth rate in the recent years.

In 2018, over 39 billion litres of beer containing alcohol were produced in the European Union (EU). The EU’s beer production was equivalent to around 76 litres per inhabitant, according to figures provided by the EU statistical office Eurostat.

In addition, in 2018 the EU produced over 1 billion litres of beer which contained less than 0.5% alcohol or had no alcohol content at all.

19 January, 2020