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 2022, 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 194 million hl in 2022.

Rounding off the top ten countries are Vietnam in ninth place with 39 million hl and Poland in tenth position with an estimated 38 million hl. Across Europe, beer production increased by a total of 3 million hl.

In the Americas, output rose by 6.1 million hl. This figure hides the fact that while Brazil and Mexico saw strong growth, with 4.4 million hl and 6.3 million hl, respectively, the U.S. saw a fall in output of -10.1 million hl.

Meanwhile, the African continent saw a 6.6 million hl increase in output, mainly driven by growth in South Africa (+2.8 million hl), Ethiopia (+1.5 million hl) and Angola (+1 million hl).

In 2022, world beer production increased by 25 million hl to 1.89 billion hl. In the EU, Spain (+3m hl) and Germany (+2.4m hl) saw particular gains, while Ukraine saw a strong decline (-4.8m hl).