The popularity of non-alcoholic beer continues to grow in Europe. In 2020, about 20 percent more were produced than in the previous year. The Netherlands is the third largest producer of non-alcoholic beer, after Germany and Spain.
Total non-alcoholic beer production in the European Union in 2021 was just under 1.7 billion liters, according to Eurostat statistics. A year ago, that was still just under 1.4 billion liters. The Netherlands produced 202 million liters of this, almost one-eighth of the total production. Germany is by far the largest producer of non-alcoholic beer, with an output of 400 million liters. Spain produced 264 million liters of non-alcoholic beer in 2021, thus it is in second place.
It comes as no surprise that the Netherlands is a major producer of non-alcoholic beer. The Netherlands has also been one of the largest producers of alcoholic beer for years. If you look at the production of alcoholic beer, the Netherlands ranks fourth in the European Union, a place inferior to Poland.
The production of non-alcoholic beer is still nothing compared to the production of alcohol-containing beer. In 2021, 33.1 billion liters of beer was produced in the European Union, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. So the growth is much less than that of non-alcoholic beer.
In 2021, as in previous years, the Netherlands was the largest beer exporter. European beer is mainly exported to the United Kingdom and the United States. About 41 percent of all beer that leaves the European Union ends up there.
