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Big jump in beer output in Jan-Feb shows market recovery

By Ding Qingfen (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-03-16 15:00

Total beer output in the first two months of 2009 rose 12.9 percent from a year earlier period to 4.97 million kiloliter, reversing the sluggish trend in 2008, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The figure reflected a significant increase in sales as more than 95 percent of the output is consumed.

Hurt by the snowstorm, beer output in the first six months of 2008 grew only 5.6 percent from the corresponding months in 2007. For the whole of 2008, the production of beer increased a mere 5.5 percent from a year before.

In 2009, the price of barley, a major ingredient in beer making, has dropped to $363 per ton from $450.

The NBS figures also shows output of liquor in February grew 20.2 percent from January. But wine production in that same month fell 5.2 percent year-on-year.