Drinking Chinese Beer: How China Surpassed Germany and Czech Republic to Become the Global Beer Market Leader
Chinese Beer Has Become the Best Seller in Russia
For the first time, China has topped the Russian beer import market, far surpassing traditional European beer-producing countries such as the Czech Republic and Germany.
According to a report by RIA Novosti based on data from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics database and customs departments of various countries, the volume of beer exports from China to Russia increased by 50% between January and September 2025.
Within the first ten months, the sales of Chinese beer in Russia reached 33.4 million U.S. dollars. According to estimates, the total value of China's beer exports to Russia in 2025 will reach 7.7 billion rubles, which exceeds the combined exports of the Czech Republic, Germany, and Belgium to Russia.
The Czech Republic, which had long occupied the top position in Russia's beer import market, has now fallen to second place, with its export volume nearly halved. Meanwhile, Germany, once the core supplier of imported beer to Russia, saw its exports drop by a staggering 60%, experiencing a particularly severe decline.
The success of China in this field is the result of multiple factors, and it is by no means solely due to the impact of sanctions. In fact, China is actively expanding into emerging global markets, and even products like beer and wine, which have never been associated with "Made in China," have become new tools for China's overseas expansion.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, craft beer is currently sparking a consumption trend in China, being viewed as an affordable alternative to premium wines and spirits.
Take baijiu (Chinese white spirit) as an example, its market demand is showing a downward trend. Baijiu is a strong alcoholic drink made from various grains or mixtures of grains, with a taste between vodka and homemade spirits. It is worth noting that from an economic perspective, baijiu is a highly unique product: although it is the world's best-selling alcoholic beverage, its export volume is almost zero. At least in Russia, baijiu is little known, forming a sharp contrast with the popularity of Chinese beer in Russia.
China is the world's largest beer consumer, and the share of imported brands in the domestic beer market is extremely low, only about 1%. After all, China has a long tradition of beer brewing, so why would it need to import German or Czech beer from across the ocean?
The long historical accumulation has given rise to a unique beer culture in China. Unlike European and Russian beers, the brewing ingredients of Chinese beer are not limited to barley malt, but also include other grains such as rye, sorghum, and rice. Interestingly, Chinese beer was initially popular mainly in rural areas, while in recent decades, craft beer has rapidly gained popularity in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
What is currently popular is not cheap beer, but more diverse varieties, including wheat beer, pale ale, and creative beers with unusual ingredients. The South China Morning Post took the Youblow Craft Beer House as an example, where a glass of beer can cost up to 20 yuan (about 220 rubles), far exceeding the price of regular beer in supermarkets, which costs only 4 yuan (about 42 rubles) per bottle.
As the South China Morning Post noted, on one hand, the demand for high-quality and affordable beer continues to rise domestically, and on the other hand, China has strong large-scale production capabilities. With these two advantages, China has quickly filled the gap in the international market, thus reshaping the beer import market structure in Russia.
In the Chinese market, craft beer is gradually taking over the shares of traditional baijiu and wine. According to the South China Morning Post, before the outbreak of the epidemic, the Chinese wine market was booming, and foreign exporters at that time could "ask for any price and not worry about sales."
However, times have changed, and now Chinese consumers are gradually moving away from Western wines, putting European wine merchants who had long dominated the Chinese market in a difficult situation. Some wine merchants have had to choose to significantly reduce prices in order to retain market share.
Data from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine shows that global wine consumption dropped sharply after the pandemic, with consumption reaching approximately 21.4 billion liters in 2024, setting a record low since 1961.
This shift in consumption trends is especially evident in the Chinese market. Since the peak of wine imports in 2017, when the volume reached 552 million liters, the import volume of wine in China has entered a long-term downward trend, and the impact of the pandemic has further accelerated this trend.
In 2024, the import volume of wine in China exceeded 165 million liters, less than 30% of seven years ago. The market space previously occupied by wine merchants is now firmly occupied by local beer manufacturers.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/7583342664117813760/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.