Another record year for Italian beer

According to the AssoBirra Annual Report recently unveiled in Milan, 2017 marked the second record year in a row for the Italian beer industry in terms of both domestic and foreign sales.

Exports reached an all-time high of 2.7 million hectolitres, 7.9% up on 2016, while production also grew by 7.5% to its highest ever value of 15.6 million hectolitres.

The domestic market also performed strongly with levels of per capita consumption of 31.8 litres, 0.4 litres more than the previous year. The total quantity of beer consumed in Italy in 2017 amounted to 19 million hectolitres (+1.6%).

The report also revealed a boom in the consumption of craft beer, which with a production of 483,000 hectolitres accounted for a market share of 3.2%.

At the same time 2017 saw a significant fall in imports, which dropped by 9.1% year on year to 6.4 million hectolitres.