World: Beer expected to be one of the winners of the return to normal life

The second or continued corona wave has affected beer production and sales to various degrees, H. M. Gauger GmbH reported earlier in December.

Small and medium inland brewers in the EU as well as craft brewers in North America suffer from lost on-premise (bars, restaurants, travel) business. It is noted, though, that many brewers have adjusted to the new style of beer sales, mainly to bottling and canning beer for off-premise (out of house) sales. Nevertheless, beer sales and subsequently malt call-offs have dropped since October, and inland maltsters had to slow down their production in October-November.

Malt exports continued at a good pace till mid-November, more or less unchanged from last year,
just in the last few weeks smaller shipment numbers are reported. Of all malt destinations in the world Brazil excelled with beer sales up to 10% higher than in 2019. Most other markets had some trouble during the year, most of all lockdowns and many other government restrictions.

Looking back at the beginning of the year 2020, quite a few maltsters had been oversold, therefore export shipment delays were hardly felt in their production programs. EU export maltsters report a continued full capacity malt production. As the anti-covid vaccination is about to begin, brewers must be planning for a good spring and summer, beer will be one of the winners of the return to normal life. The outlook for 2021 is really positive, the analysts said.

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