Germany: In one of Western Europe’s biggest beer markets, Germany, beer consumption fell once again in 2003, according to the German Brewers’ Association (DBB). The decline is attributed to the changing of consumer tastes and the disastrous deposit scheme for one-way packaging. Speaking at the annual Green Week trade fair in Berlin, DBB president Richard Weber told journalists that exports had risen by to 12 million hectolitres, 11 % of total output, during the year – showing that consumers in the rest of Europe were still quite happy to pick German beer to quench their thirst – but that this increase was not enough to offset the decline at home.

Output by Germany’s 1,280 breweries was estimated at 104 million hectolitres in 2003 – around 5 per cent lower than the previous year, continuing the decade long decline in output.

Germany’s ageing population was cited as the principal cause of the decline by Weber: young people have traditionally been the main consumers of beer, and with fewer of them in the market place, beer sales have clearly suffered. But 2003 sales were also badly hit by the Berlin government’s introduction of a depsosit system on one-way packaging – such as aluminium beer cans. The scheme was badly implemented, with consumers forced to return the packaging to the point of purchase to reclaim their deposit. This angered the retail trade, who argued that they were being forced to bear this additional cost because their was no national network of recycling points for one-way containers, unlike recyclable ones, and many supermarkets simply stopped selling one-way containers.

"Most brewers sell 80 per cent of their beer within 150 kilometres of the brewery,” Weber said at the press conference. “If they have to collect their own empty bottles, they cannot afford to sell beer outside of their region because transportation costs are too high," Weber said.

23 January, 2004