ROMANIA: 6.5% advance for the local beer market in 2015 | Progresiv

Romanian beer market reported last year an increase of 6.5% over 2014, reaching 15.8 million hectoliters, announced the Romanian Brewers Association. The advance came after two consecutive years of declining consumption and it is based both on the positive evolution of Romania's economic indicators and good weather in the summer of last year. 80% of beer sales were made last year in retail, the remaining 20% coming from HoReCa.

"The favorable context created at national level last year by a positive evolution of economic indicators of Romania, has made a mark on everyday life of Romanians, as well as on their consumption decisions. After a first half of 2015 which indicated a positive evolution of the market, the end of year results confirmed our expectations", noted Igor Tikhonov, President of the Romanian Brewers Association as well as President of Ursus Breweries.

Increases were also reported in terms of the level of beer consumption per capita, which climbed to 80 liters in 2015, from 74 liters in 2014. This result puts Romania in eighth place in Europe based on beer consumption per capita.

Instead, consumer preferences regarding the type of packaging for beer had only small fluctuations compared to 2014. 53.4% of Romanians prefer PET (+ 0.3% yoy), 24.8 % glass bottles (-1% compared to last year), 18.1% can (+ 0.5% over 2014), while pint is preferred by only 3.7% of Romanian consumers.

Regarding exports of beer in 2015, they recorded a slight increase (0.2 million hectoliters) compared to the previous year, reaching 0.5 million hectoliters. On the other hand, beer imports fell by 0.1 million hectoliters compared to 2014, remaining below 3% of the market.

Beer production remains an important factor in generating economic growth in Romania: 97% of beer consumed in Romania is produced locally, and over 70% of agricultural raw materials used to produce beer come from Romania as well.