A new report, entitled "The Economic Contribution of Beer to the European Economy" has highlighted that Europe's brewing sector is flourishing once again, after the turbulent times of the economic crisis.
The report, written by Europe Economics, examined the impact of the beer sector, focusing on employment, tax revenues and value added. It showed that European citizens spent more than €110bn on beer in 2014, the equivalent of €200 per head of population.
In addition, every brewery job brewery creates a further 17 jobs; two upstream in supply and agriculture, plus two in retail and a further 13 in bars pubs and restaurants. In all, this is around one per cent of all jobs in the EU.
Speaking at the launch of the report at the fifth annual 'Beer Serves Europe' event, Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, Secretary General of The Brewers of Europe, announced that "beer is back". He pointed to the opening of 900 new breweries in 2014 as the sign of an industry in good health. Many of these new producers are SMEs and micro-SMEs.
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He also highlighted a healthy contribution to the EU economy, explaining the brewing industry had; "a GDP the size of Croatia, employed as many people as Slovakia and generated the tax revenue the size of that of Hungary."
Robert Madelin, Senior Innovation Adviser the European Commission, praised the sector, noting that for such a traditional industry it was highly inventive. It has tread the delicate tightrope between maintaining the comfort of familiarity with the demands of innovation. It has brought established products to new markets in fresh ways, which equally as demanding as developing new products.
The industry has also demonstrated genuine thought leadership in adopting responsible labelling, showing it was in tune with modern consumer demand.
Download the report "The Economic Contribution of Beer to the European Economy" here