Beer consumption in Italy drops 11 percent in 2020

Italy | The covid pandemic hit Italy’s economy earlier and more severely than other large eurozone economies. In 2020, Italy’s economy shrank 8.9 percent, the second-largest contraction after Spain, and it still has further to go than Germany and France to recover its pre-pandemic scale.

Due to various restrictions and bans, tourism only contributed EUR 116 billion or 7 percent to Italy’s GDP in 2020 – whereas in 2019 the figures were twice as high.

All this has boded badly for beer sales. In fact, they dropped by about 2.5 million hl (11 percent) to 18.8 million hl in 2020, dragging per capita consumption down to 31.5 litres from 35 litres in 2019, Assobirra, an industry body, said on 22 June 2021.

All international brewers (Heineken, Peroni/Asahi, AB-InBev and Carlsberg) saw volume declines, albeit to varying degrees: Heineken, the market leader, lost 400,000 hl in sales, second ranked Peroni 500,000 hl. AB-InBev, which is ranked third, saw 300,000 hl wiped out, while Carlsberg only suffered a loss of 60,000 hl over 2019. Beer imports by third-party importers were affected the most: they declined 800,000 hl to 4.3 million hl in 2020.

Microbreweries hit hardest

The craft beer sector was devastated. 361,000 hl of artisanal beer was sold in 2020, compared with 523,000 hl in 2019. Unable to make it through the pandemic, around 100 microbreweries shuttered for good, Assobirra said. This left Italy with just a total of 756 microbreweries in 2020, of which 624 were brewpubs. This represents a loss of 200 firms over 2016, when their number peaked at 950 microbreweries.

Despite the shocking data, Assobirra remains defiant. Its 2020 report is entitled: “Beer unites Italians”.