Germany, with a once formidable reputation as a land of proud beer drinkers, actually prefers mineral water to beer, German media has posted recently. The sorry outlook for beer in the nation that invented the beer garden and the Oktoberfest has been blamed on everything from a levy on bottles and price-gouging in bars to an ageing population with smaller bladders. Per-capita beer consumption last year was 121.5 litres, the national brewing federation says.
CEO of leading German brewer Krombacher, Bernhard Schadeberg, predicted that full-year beer sales by the nation's 1,300 breweries would be about 4 % lower than last year. He said population decline and a general reluctance by consumers to spend in a slump mattered more than a refundable deposit charged since January 1 on tear-tab cans and plastic bottles. "Beer has been in decline for years, deposit or no deposit," he said.
The market was however roiled by the start of deposits. Supermarket chains cleared old stocks at penny prices last December, and many happy drinkers bought cans in bulk, keeping enough beer in their homes to last until summer. The anti-can levy provided a welcome boost to breweries like Krombacher that have always used refillable bottles. Its first-half sales rose 7 % to record level, even as other brewers were filled with gloom. In bars, clubs and restaurants, waiters say wine and strange fizzy cocktails containing everything from liquor to coffee extract have been becoming more fashionable.
Oddly, the rest of the world is growing to love German beer at the same time as the Germans foresake it. Exports of beerrose 7 % in the first half of this year to the equivalent of 530 million foaming steins, the one-litre mugs used at Oktoberfest. The biggest buyers are Italy and the United States.
Foreign interests are also guzzling on German breweries, with a series of takeovers by Belgian and US interests. The biggest brewing group, Holsten, is up for sale, and Schadeberg predicts a quarter of brewing capacity will change hands this year. "There's been nothing like this for the past 30 years," he said.
17 October, 2003
