Beer drinkers underperform

Germans on average drink 107.2 liters of beer per capita annually, the Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Consumer Protection reported on Monday. It hastened to add that men generally consume seven times more of the national beverage than women.

While the abovementioned figure may seem like quite a lot to people in other countries, beer drinking in Germany has steadily declined over the past couple of decades. Back in 2003, for instance, annual per-capita consumption was put at 117.8 liters.

Brewers have seen a general trend of young people increasingly turning away from beer to other alcoholic beverages as more and more fancy drinks come onto the market.

Sports and beer

The steady decrease in beer consumption came to a brief halt in 2006, when Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup. That year, consumption rose by 1.4 percent compared to 2005 - the strongest increase in 12 years, according to Germany's Federal Statistics Office (Destatis).

Almost two-thirds of the European Union's hop-growing regions are located in Germany, and Germany accounts for one-third of the world's hop production.

99.5 percent of all hops grown in Germany are used for beer brewing. The rest goes toward making medicine or is used as an additive in various liqueurs.

hg/srs (AFP, dapd)