E-Malt.com News article: World: Beer prices index shows cheapest beer in Asia can be found in Delhi

The cheapest beer in Asia can apparently be found in Delhi and the most expensive in Hong Kong. A travel search engine focused on Europe, GoEuro, recently compiled an index of beer prices across 75 cities, including 12 in Asia (13, if Moscow is included). The index encompasses both supermarket and bar prices, basing supermarket prices on the average across five imports and one local brew and bar prices off the same beers served in three hotel chains. Far from comprehensive, the index is still interesting, given the surge in global beer consumption is driven by Asia (as well as Africa).

According to the 2014 annual Kirin Beer University Report worldwide beer consumption rose in 2013, the 28th year of consecutive growth. Asia consumed 4.8 percent more beer in 2013 than it did in 2012 and holds 34.8 percent of the global beer market. China, alone, holds a 24 percent share of the market, double that of the United States.

Overall, the cheapest spots (average between bar & supermarket) were, as can be expected, in Europe – Kraków, Kiev, and Bratislava topped the list – but Delhi came in fifth and Ho Chi Minh City in sixth. A beer at a bar in Delhi would set you back only $2.31, while you’d pay $10.86 in Hong Kong. According to the index, a beer at a Beijing bar costs $6.35. Singapore has an average bar price of $8.37.

India’s beer heritage stretches back, officially, to a brewery founded in the 1820s at the foot of the Himalayas by Edward Dyer – whose son, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, is infamous in India for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. Incorporated in 1855, what was once named Dyer Breweries lives on under the Mohan Meakin group as the oldest modern brewery in Asia.

Still, Delhi’s per capita consumption falls at the very bottom of the index – with an average annual consumption of 6 litres per capita (only Cairo was lower, Bucharest ranked highest at 133 litres). Beer may be cheap in Delhi, but Indians don’t drink much of it.

China, similarly, has Europe to thank for its beer. Tsingtao, based in its namesake Qingdao, has German heritage and Snow, the best selling beer in China is the product of a joint venture between China Resources Enterprise and the UK-based SABMiller.

Asia is a growing market both globally and domestically — with Asian beer makers breaking into world markets and beers from around the world finding their way into the region.


01 July, 2015