Currently, the average Portuguese person drinks 15 litres less of the golden liquid than they did in 2005.
In 2015, individual consumption was estimated at 46 litres of beer a year, which is a far cry from the 61 litres drank in 2005.
However, the industry released a sigh of relief last year when the continuous downward trend noted over the past ten years bottomed out after registering levels similar to those registered in 2014.
Rui Lopes Ferreira, head of the Portuguese Beer Producers’ Association, said the successive drops in consumption are related to the generalised slowing in spending that has been felt since 2010.
He said less beer has been consumed as the Portuguese generally stopped eating out and started staying home more.
And, he added, as 63 percent of the country’s beer is sold in restaurants, bars and cafés, the shift in behaviour obviously had an impact on sales, exacerbated by the brief rise in catering VAT to 23 percent in 2012, which was brought down to 13 percent this year.
“Beer consumption per inhabitant fell by 22 percent from 2010 to 2015. It stood at 59 litres per capita and in 2015 it dropped to 46 litres. Consequently beer production on the internal market dropped by 11 percent during the same period. It did not drop as much as consumption because exports offer some compensation”.
“However”, Rui Lopes Ferreira said, “fiscal contribution from the sector during the aforementioned five years rose by 28 percent.”