An unexpected decrease of draft beer consumption in the Czech Republic. Photo: Pexels
Brno, Sep 30 (BD) – For the last fourteen years in the country 55 percent of beer was sold directly to restaurants and pubs and the rest 45 percent was forwarded to supermarkets to be sold bottled.
The brewers were pleased as consumption of draft beer brought in higher earnings than bottled beer.
Last year, 61 percent of beer was sold in bottles and cans, Czech on-line daily iDnes.cz reported. “In July the sale of barrel beer dropped by 9 percent year-on-year”, the chairman of the Czech Brewery and Malt Association František Šáma shared.
“The reason for this observed decline can be found specifically in the current anti-smoking law, which has a negative impact on the market”, Martina Ferencová, executive director of the association adds.
Anti-smoking law according to Ferencová has forced a significant number of pub owners to close down their businesses, especially in villages. Now, some customers have no choice but to buy bottled beer and consume it at home. “If this trend continues, we can expect a ominous year for the Czech brewing businesses”, Ferencová says.
Sales of the largest Czech brewery continue growing. “Just like the whole beer market, we are seeing a drop in barrel beer”, Pilsner Urquell spokeswoman Jitka Němečková said.
“This year, we observed a slight drop in draft beer sales of approximately 4.5 percent, which we have successfully replaced with increased exports towards Poland,” says Magdalena Werner, head of the Regent brewery in Trebon, who is a middle-sized beer producer.
Beer consumption in the Czech Republic 2000-2015 in liter/person/year. Source: BeerWeb.cz
Despite the unpleasant situation, there are exceptions. “Our sales ratio remains unchanged this year, 60 percent of barrel beer and only 40 percent of bottled” Bernard Zdeněk Mikulasek, spokesman for Bernard said to iDnes.cz. However, some breweries are only selling beer that is consumed in pubs.
Microbreweries are now getting more and more popular in the Czech Republic. “Microbreweries, unlike the big ones, are free to experiment more and are more willing to offer lagers or specials and, more importantly, they experiment with world beer styles,” BeerWeb.cz, the hobby group of Czech beer drinkers explains.
“Due to the smoking ban, it can be assumed that as in many other European countries, beer consumption will fall in the Czech Republic, too,” Šamal predicts. According to the brewer, the only way to maintain production, which 65,000 people are working for, is to export.
The export of Czech beer is growing. Poland and Germany are the main buyers of Czech beer, However, domestic breweries are looking for new outlets in typical wine countries as well. “In the last five years, we have grown in the markets of Central and Southern Europe- Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. Sales there have increased by 30 percent,” Pavel Barvík, spokesman οf Staropramen Brewery shared.
Global beer their sales dropped by 1.8 percent compared to 2015. World market of alcoholic beverages continued to decline last year, despite the renewed growth of the global economy according to the IWSR agency that tracks trends in alcohol consumption, Czech TV wrote in June.
