E-Malt.com News article: The Czech Republic and China: Czech beer export to China nearly doubles in 2014

Czech beer export to China nearly doubled yr/yr from 12,688 hectolitres to 22,688 hectolitres in 2014, with the total export of 3.65 million hectolitres making the Chinese export share roughly 0.62 percent, Vladimír Balach, executive director at the Czech Beer and Malt Association, told ČTK on September 10.

Apart from Pivovary Lobkowicz Group, partly owned by Chinese group CEFC as of September, Budějovický Budvar and Plzeňský Prazdroj export to China, although the companies are reluctant to make their export volumes public.

“China is the biggest world beer market. Its consumption is mostly covered by the domestic production at the moment but over the past few years, Chinese demand for premium imported beer brands has been climbing mainly due to the fast growing Chinese middle age group,” Roman Pavlík, spokesman of Pivovary Lobkowicz, has said without further specification of the company's future export strategy.

Budějovický Budvar exported to nine countries of Southeast Asia last year, the most important states being China, Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam, Petr Samec, the company's spokesperson stated, adding the company increased its sales in the region by 47 percent year-on-year.

Plzeňský Prazdroj renewed its export to China in August this year.

“Given the high interest of the Chinese market in Pilsner Urquell beer, we are expecting to export several thousand hectolitres to China by the end of the year,” Vladimíir Jurina representing the brewery told ČTK on September 10.

Heineken CR, owning for example brewery Královský pivovar Krušovice, sees China as a marginal market, having a local connection via acquired Asia Pacific Breweries, and is focusing on exporting to the Nordic countries, Germany, Britain and Russia, according to the company's spokesman Jiri Hauptmann.

Staropramen does not export beer to China at all, making sales in other countries of Southeast Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, Pavel Barvík of the company has said.

The biggest beer export territories for the CzechRepublic are neighboring Germany and Slovakia, with an export share also in Sweden, Britain, Poland, Hungary and Austria. Among countries outside the EU, the main markets are Russia, the United States, Canada and South Korea.


16 September, 2015