Since 2007 the first Friday in August has been celebrated worldwide as the International Beer Day, a day dedicated to all beer lovers, brewers, hops producers and pub owners.
The web is full of sources on beer consumption. The Statistical Office obtains the data on annual beer consumption with the Household Budget Survey. According to the latest data, a person in Slovenia consumed on average 26 litres of beer in 2015. In the past ten years beer consumption has not changed much.
Production and trade
In 2017, 57 enterprises in Slovenia had beer production as their main registered activity. Their number has been growing rapidly since 2010, when there were only 13 such enterprises.
EUR 28.5 million of beer was imported to Slovenia and EUR 29.5 million was exported from Slovenia in 2017, meaning that for the first time in ten years beer exports exceeded imports. Most beer was exported to Croatia (28%), followed by Italy (28%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (21%), and imported from Austria (39%), followed by Croatia (17%) and Italy (10%).
Beer trade is livelier during the summer months. In 2017, 41% of total beer exports were generated in June, July and August (mostly in August). As regards beer imports, 35% of total imports were generated in these three months.
Prices
In a restaurant or pub half a litre of beer cost on average EUR 2.78 in 2017. In shops the price has not changed much in the past five years. A litre of beer (in a 0.5 or 0.66 litre bottle) cost on average less than EUR 2.
Hops
On 1,600 hectares of land Slovenia produced almost 2,160 tons of hops in 2017, which was 13% less than a year before. In addition to Slovenia, the other two large hops producers in the EU are Germany and the Czech Republic.
Slovenia exports much more hops than it imports. In 2017 exports amounted to more than EUR 22 million and imports to only EUR 1.3 million. About half of hops were exported to Germany, but it is also exported to more exotic countries such as Seychelles, China, Vietnam, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, India, etc.
