Non-alcoholic beer in the European Union and UK: Availability and apparent consumption

Abstract

Introduction: Market research indicates an increasing interest in low- and no-alcohol drinks in Europe, but there is no systematic overview of their availability and consumption. In this article, we present data on the availability and apparent consumption of non-alcoholic beer in the European Union and the UK.

Methods: We use Sold production, exports and imports by PRODCOM list (NACE Rev. 2) dataset, available in Eurostat, to extract the available data on sold production, exports and imports of non-alcoholic beer in the EU-27 (total and country-level) and the UK between 2013 and 2019, and additionally calculate the apparent consumption.

Results: Between 2013 and 2019, the sold production volume in the EU increased from 0.59 to 1.38 billion litres, the value from 0.42 to 1.28 billion EUR and value per litre from 0.72 to 0.93 EUR/L. In 2019, the share of non-alcoholic beer represented 3.8% of all beer volume and 4.1% of all beer value produced. Five countries accounted for 80.8% of sold production volume: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Czechia. The Netherlands and Germany were the largest exporters, while importing was distributed more equally. Per capita, average apparent consumption (2017-2019) was highest in Czechia, followed by the Netherlands, Spain, Luxembourg and Germany.

Discussion and conclusions: Our results show the increasing availability of non-alcoholic beer in the EU-27, although overall changes seem to be driven by a small number of countries. More research is needed at the country-level on no- and low-alcohol consumption trends and drivers, and their impact on alcohol-related harm reduction.

Keywords: European Union; PRODCOM; alcohol policy; non-alcoholic beer; public health.