August 2002 - Nr. 8
Quenching the World’s Beer Thirst
TWIG - Germans love their beer - and they want the rest of the world to love it, too. To spread the word, the German Brewers’ Association (Deutscher Brauer Bund DBB) is starting a new initiative designed to boost sales of the country’s "liquid bread" overseas. "German beer has the best reputation, but still gets sold too infrequently," says DBB president Richard Weber, "We have to change this."
Of the 108 million hectolitres sold last year (1 hectolitre equals 176 pints), only 10.8 hectolitres, or 10%, was exported. Weber says there’s definitely room for growth. The DBB has thus kicked off a new campaign to make German beer just as internationally popular as French wine or Italian pasta. The concept behind the initiative involves helping mainly small and medium-sized breweries, says spokesman Erich Dederichs.
"A large company like Beck’s has its own distribution system in the United States, for example," Dederichs told DW-WORLD. "It doesn’t need any additional help." Smaller producers, on the other hand, just don’t have the means to enter into foreign markets. "But there are opportunities for them and we want to support them." The DBB will provide guidance and information. It also wants to help German breweries bolster sales abroad through international trade fairs, exhibits and other sales-driven initiatives. Dederichs said the association sees the greatest potential in the Asian market. But Italy, Spain and the U.S. are also core areas of interest.
Internationally, many people are only familiar with Pilsner. But, there are hundreds of regional varieties of German beer styles to discover, including warm-fermented ales, wheat beers, smoked beers, sweetened beers, dark lagers and alcohol-free beers. Each is suited to a different occasion, and each style has its own distinctive character. This is the message the DBB wants to get out in order to increase the profile - and sales - of Germany’s 1,300 breweries.
Weber feels that many brewers have focused too exclusively on the domestic market and neglected their international opportunities. He says Germany’s per person consumption of some 120 liters per year is not likely to increase further. The older generation is making up a ever larger part of the population, and it just doesn’t drink as much as the younger generation does. So new drinkers need to be found.
In the U.S., the growing popularity of micro- and foreign brews has led to a resurgence of interest in German beers, particularly wheat beers, which were virtually unknown in America even five years ago. This week, the New York Times dedicates a column to German wheat beers, with critic Frank J. Prial praising them as an ideal summer refreshment: "More than anything, tasters were impressed by the diversity of styles, tastes and aromas when compared with standard, bland American beers." Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, a Bavarian style opaque wheat beer produced by Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world, based in Freising (Bavaria), tied with a Japanese brew for top honours. Prost!
For more from the German Brewers’ Association (in German only) click here http://www.brauer-bund.de.
