Latest Beverage Trends in Europe

Focus - European Drinks Market

Overview

THE STATISTA REPORT PUBLISHED 24 JUNE 2019, STATES THAT THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES MARKET IN EUROPE IS ONE OF THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD. WESTERN EUROPE REPRESENTED A MARKET VALUE OF APPROXIMATELY 332 BILLION EUROS IN 2018. THE VALUE OF THE EASTERN EUROPEAN MARKET AMOUNTED TO ROUGHLY 92 BILLION EUROS THE SAME YEAR.

The largest market in Europe for alcoholic beverages is Germany. In 2015, the sales value of alcoholic drinks in Germany amounted to approximately 18.7 billion euros, roughly six billion more than France, the second-largest market with a sales value of nearly 12.6 billion euros. The United Kingdom and Italy are the third and fourthlargest markets in Europe, with sales values of 5.7 and 4.9 billion euros, respectively.

The most popular alcoholic beverage in Europe is beer, with a market share of 37 percent of all alcohol sold in 2017. Wine and spirits had a market share of 34 and 25 per cent, respectively. In 2015 the combined sales value of beer in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands was over 19.2 billion euros, roughly four billion more than wine and eight billion more than other spirits. Although lager remains popular, especially the craft beer market is booming in Europe. In 2016 consumption of craft beer in Europe reached nearly 1.4 billion litres.

Europe’s heaviest drinkers are in Moldova, which had the highest pure alcohol consumption per capita with 17.4 litres consumed on average in 2015. Belarus and Lithuania followed with 17.1 and 16.2 litres, respectively. At the other end of the scale, alcohol consumption was relatively low in Turkey with 2.4 litres consumed, Macedonia with 5.7 litres and Italy with 6.1 litres.