China Is the World’s Biggest Producer of Beer

China is the world’s leading producer of beer, according to the BarthHaas Report released today. In 2023, the country’s output stood at 360 million hectoliters of beer. A hectoliter is equivalent to one hundred liters. As the following chart shows, the United States is the second biggest producer of beer with an output of 193m hl in 2023.

Rounding off the top ten countries are Poland in ninth place with 36m hl and South Africa in tenth position with an estimated 35m hl. Across Europe, beer production decreased by a total of 9m hl.

In the Americas, output fell by 7.2m hl. This figure hides the fact that while the U.S. saw a drop in output of -9.9m hl, South America saw growth of 2.4m hl and Central America and the Caribbean saw an increase of 0.2m hl.

Asia showed more of a mixed picture with production increasing significantly in India (+3.8m hl) and Cambodia (+2m hl), while it fell in Vietnam (-8m hectolitres), as well as declines of over 1m hl in South Korea, Thailand, China and Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, the African continent saw a 4.6m hl increase in output, with the most significant growth in South Africa (+1.4m hl), Ethiopia (+1.1m hl) and Cameroon (+1.1m hl).

In 2023, world beer production decreased by nearly 17m hl to 1.88 billion hl. In Europe, production fell by 9m hl, largely driven by a drop in output from the United Kingdom (-3.3m hl), Germany (-2.9m hl) and Poland (-2m hl).