Romania’s Beer Market

Romania is a key player in beer-making at the EU level. Proof thereof are the 15.8 million hectoliters sold on the market in 2015, which ranked Romania seventh, after Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, France and Italy. Accordingly, the per capita consumption in 2015 stood at 80 liters, as compared to 74 liters in 2014. In terms of beer consumption, the per capita figure earned Romania the eighth position in Europe, following in descending order the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Austria, Ireland, Croatia and Lithuania. In 2015, beer imports on the Romanian market dropped by 0.1 million hectoliters as compared with 2014, reaching 0.35 million hectoliters, still standing at below 3 per cent at market level. Such a situation was possible since the domestic beer-making industry was mostly concerned with diversifying its range of products, with 97% of the production being of domestic origin.

 Constantin Bratu is general manager of Romania’s Brewers’ Association. He highlighted that in the production sector proper, tax evasion amounted to zero. With details on that, here is Constantin Bratu himself: ”Romania’s beer-making sector is dominated by the fact that, production-wise, we have zero tax evasion, yet there’s another fact I should like to point to, the fact that 97% of the beer which is consumed in Romania is made in this country and if we connect the two indicators, we find out Romania’s beer sector has a deep involvement in our country, with jobs being generated and multiplied as a direct effect of that. Actually there are roughly 70 thousand people employed in this sector, thanks to the upward trend of the beer-making sector in our country.”

Members of Romania’s Brewers’ Association are leading beer-making brands on the market such as Bergenbier, Heineken, United Romanian Breweries Bereprod, Ursus Breweries and Martens, as well as the Beer Clinic brewery. All told the six beer makers provide more than 80 per cent of the quantity of beer consumed in Romania. Also, members of the aforementioned association are representatives of raw matter producers, such as Soufflet Malt Romania and the Association of Hop Producers.

Here is Constantin Bratu once again, this time speaking about what Romanians go for as regards beer: ”Draft beer accounts for around 3% of the market, but we can see draft beer stands real chances to once again become the star of the beer gardens, this summer as well as in the coming years. Around 50% of Romanians go for beer served in PET-type plastic bottles, glass bottle beer stands at around 28% of the market, while canned beer accounts for roughly 18% of the market. An encouraging thing is that 80% of the healthy adults in Romania who prefer to drink alcoholic beverages at the table, choose to drink beer.”

Beer producers in Romania also export some of the output, the volume of export-bound beer last year stood at 0.5 million hectolitres, registering a 0.2 million hectolitre increase, as compared to 2014.

Constantin Bratu again: “ We export beer, but it is true that less than we wish we did. We exported over 2% of the beer output in Romania. We focussed our attention on countries close to us, from a geographic point of view, as well as on countries which host large communities of ethnic Romanians, such as Spain and Italy.”

The general managers of Romania’s Brewers’ Association, Constantin Bratu, says the members of the association he runs made constant and consistent efforts in 2015 to invest in the field, with a volume of investment of 55.5 million Euros. The overall investments made by the members of the association have amounted to 1.35 billion Euros so far,. The number of employees in the association member breweries stood at a relatively constant level in 2015, as compared to the previous year, with a total number of 3,700 employees. Also, the beer industry has paid some 237.7 billion Euros to the state budget since the association was set up.

The general manager of Romania’s Brewers’ Association has also made some recommendations toconsumers: “Beer is a beverage made of natural ingredients, but we shouldn’t forget that it contains alcohol, it is true in a rather small concentration. That is why, we recommend a responsible consumption of beer, a fact that we have promoted since the association was set up. It would be ideal, for us, as adult and healthy people, to drink between 660 millilitres and one litre of beer per day, in the case of men, and between 350 and 400 millilitres per day, in the case of women. If we want to get more hydrated, we should take into consideration non-alcoholic beer, a perfect choice for beer lovers who are also drivers.”

The breweries which are members of Romania’s Brewers’ Association are located in Ploiesti, Constanta, Craiova, Miercurea Ciuc, Targu-Mures, Pantelimon village, Timisoara, Buzau, Brasov and Galati, and the two micro-breweries are located in Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.