E-Malt.com News article: 794

Datamonitor's John Band examines beer-drinking habits in Ireland. The global market for stouts (very heavy, dark beers - most famously Guinness) was worth $6.3 billion in 2002. Unsurprisingly, Ireland was the biggest market - with $1.6 billion in stout sales. The UK was next, with a market worth over $1.2 billion. Admittedly, this is small compared to the overall beer market, but it's hard to deny the stout segment is an important one. Even in volume terms, 1.25 billion liters of stout were sold in 2002 - eight million barrels, or 2.2 billion English pints.

In volume terms, the Irish were on top once more, with 269 million liters consumed; the UK was next with 248 million. Another surprising contender beat the US into fourth place: South Africans consume 177 million liters of stout a year.

The Irish are far ahead of any other country in stout consumption per head. They drink 76 liters of stout a year per head - that's 134 English pints. South Africa is next, with the UK close behind: both countries consume 4-5 liters a year.For all that Americans celebrate their Irish roots on St Patrick's Day, this isn't matched by their stout consumption. . The average American drinks 0.38 liters of stout a year - not even one pint on March 17.

However, the stout market is changing significantly. The heavy drink is losing popularity in its homeland, with Irish volumes set to fall 3.3% a year between now and 2007. Volumes in Britain will fall at around the same rate - and in 2006, South Africa will overtake Ireland to become the world's top stout drinking nation.

While Ireland is the only country in the world where dark beers are more popular than lagers, the Irish certainly don't turn their noses up at other beer types. The overall British beer market was worth $30.3 billion in 2002, with 6.1 billion liters consumed.

The difference in rankings shows that the UK has some of the highest prices in the world: the average price of a pint of beer in the UK last year was $2.82, or GBP1.89 (this is the price across all retail channels, including shops and pubs/bars).


21 March, 2003