China tops beer consumption rankings for 5th straight year: Kirin

TOKYO, Dec. 18 Kyodo - China remained the world's largest beer consumer in 2007 for the fifth straight year, while Japan fell to seventh place from sixth in 2006 due to a shrinking population of younger people and increasingly diverse consumer tastes, Kirin
Holdings Co. said Thursday.

Beer consumption in China last year jumped 11.8 percent from 2006 to 39.13
million kiloliters whereas Japan's consumption dipped 0.3 percent to 6.28
million kl.
With their economies strengthening, Russia and Brazil saw their respective
consumption exceed 10 million kl for the first time.
Russia's beer consumption rose 15.1 percent to 11.05 million kl, ranking third
next to the United States. Brazil overtook Germany to rank fourth with
consumption at 10.08 million kl, up 7.7 percent.
Asia, where economies showed impressive growth, expanded its share of global
beer consumption by 1.1 percentage points to 31.2 percent, almost on a par with
31.4 percent for Europe, the world's largest beer market. Global consumption
climbed 5.6 percent to 175.51 million kl.
The Czech Republic led the world in terms of per capita consumption. The amount
drunk by the Czechs translates into 228.9 633-mililiter bottles, topping the
rankings for the 15th consecutive year. Japan ranked 38th with 77.7 bottles and
China 55th with 45.7 bottles.
Kirin's statistics were based on questionnaire surveys conducted on beer
industry organizations around the world and other latest data.