CSR in Supply Chains of Brewing Industry - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 98

Fig. 2 Exports (intra-EU/extra-EU) in 2012 as a percentage of total production per EU Member
State (adopted from Berkhout et al. 2013 )
European Union could contribute to a revival in the brewing sector (Jirovec and
Calleja 2013 ).
Most European beer production is sold on the internal market of the European
Union, but export to other regions of the world has continuously been rising since
2000 (so far, this growth has amounted to 30 %). The greatest export receivers
include: the United States, Canada, Angola, China, Switzerland, Taiwan, Russia
and Australia. Moreover, European breweries are also large investors on all conti-
nents and participate in various initiatives of co-operation with local breweries and
distributors. In 2012, beer export from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark
was particularly important (see Fig. 2 ). The percentage of the total national beer
production exported from these Member States was relatively high, ranging from
48 to 62 %, and can also be accounted for by the presence of large multinational
brewing companies. In absolute terms, Germany (15.7 million hectolitres), the
Netherlands (14.7 million hectolitres) and Belgium (11.7 million hectolitres) were
the largest European Union beer exporters (Berkhout et al. 2013 ).
In 2012 47 million hectolitres of beer produced in the European Union were
imported. The largest importers were: Luxembourg, Estonia, France, Italy, and
Malta, with 32-60 % of total beer consumption comprising imported beer (see
Fig. 3 ). In absolute terms, the United Kingdom (8.8 million hectolitres), France
(7.4 million hectolitres), Germany (7.3 million hectolitres) and Italy (6.2 million
hectolitres) were the most important importers (Berkhout et al. 2013 ).
In the last 15 years the European beer market has undergone diverse changes
resulting from technological progress, investments in development, mergers and
establishment of new enterprises, as well as changing consumer attitudes. An
increase in the number of smaller breweries has been noticed in all countries of
the European Union. This contributes to a wider range of products being offered to
consumers. It is also a favourable phenomenon from the viewpoint of sustainable