Belgium: Belgian brewers facing bottle shortage

Belgian brewers are facing a major shortage of bottles and some breweries have to limit their production as a result, Belgian broadcaster VRT reported June 21.

The shortage was partly due to the hot weather, which pushed up beer sales in the first five months of this year by three percent from a year ago, the report said.

The problem was compounded by the fact that glass production were falling across Europe and many bottles were not returned by consumers.

Beer market leader InBev said so far the shortage has not affected its production, but the company hopes to solve the problem by collecting more used bottles.

Brewer Jean-Luc Suys confirmed that the brewing industry are experiencing major problems at the moment. The brewers are trying to get consumers to return as many bottles as possible. Yet, to some brewers, production has to be halted at least once a week.
Glass importer Pascal Van Stuyvendael told the VRT that the glass shortage was noticeable throughout the European market, as a number of factories have scaled down production and glass furnaces have been closed.