The Bavarian breweries have once again defended their title as sales champions in 2023 despite declining sales figures. For the tenth time in a row, they were ahead, as the State Office for Statistics announced on Monday on the occasion of Bavarian Beer Day on Tuesday. Sales according to beer tax statistics were 23.4 million hectoliters. That’s a good 2.3 billion measures. Sales therefore fell by 2.5 percent. However, that is even better than the nationwide development, which shows a decline of 4.5 percent to 83.7 million hectoliters. North Rhine-Westphalia takes second place among the federal states with a good 21 million hectoliters.
Bavaria is even more ahead when it comes to the number of breweries. With 622, the Free State has a nationwide share of almost 42 percent. Almost a quarter of Bavarian beer was sold abroad. The best sales overall were in the months May to July.
However, the Bavarian brewers are dissatisfied with the past year. At its annual press conference in February, the Brewers’ Association spoke of the “tough headwinds of a difficult market” and expressed concern that the end of the VAT reduction in the catering industry would also have a negative impact on beer sales.
At least the first few months went rather well. Until February, the beer tax statistics from the Federal Statistical Office show a significant increase for Bavaria, and the Bavarian Brewers Association also speaks of a good start to the year. However, managing director Lothar Ebbertz also points out that these first winter months do not usually have a significant impact on the year.
Non-alcoholic beer developed particularly positively, confirming the trend of recent years. Data is not yet available on whether the warm weather in March and early April provided an additional boost to beer sales. “Full beer gardens and well-staffed outdoor restaurants in the cities in March and the beginning of April speak for this,” says Ebbertz. However, the recent phase of bad weather could “quickly wipe out any imaginable plus”.
Bavarian Beer Day is traditionally celebrated on April 23rd, the day on which the Bavarian Purity Law was proclaimed in Ingolstadt in 1516. However, the celebrations, which have been celebrated since 1996 with a beer fountain in front of the brewers’ association headquarters in Munich, have to be canceled for the first time this year due to weather conditions. With five degrees and snow forecast, people would hardly toast the birthday of the Purity Law, it was said. In this way, the bad weather costs the Bavarians 1000 liters of free beer. However, this is unlikely to have any impact on the statistics for the current year.