U.S. Beer Shipments, Imports Declined in April

Beer Institute estimated U.S. brewers shipped 13 million barrels to retailers in April. That was down just over 500,000 barrels compared to a year earlier and was a 4% decline.

Imported beer shipments fell 11% to 3,163,374, down nearly 400K barrels from April 2022. YTD imports are now -2.4%. A significant decline in Mexican imports (-9.1%) was the primary driver of total import performance for April, Beer Institute said, but it added this was against tough comps from the previous year. Mexican imports were not alone, as imports from other countries also contributed to declines, including the Netherlands (-24.2%), Ireland (-28.3%), Canada (-10.1%), and Belgium (-57.6%).

Bright spots for imports included Germany (+30.6%) and Italy (+27.1%), along with non-alcoholic imported beer, up by nearly 20,000 barrels (+59.6%). The Netherlands and Mexico led non-alc growth, Danelle Kosmal, vp-research at the Beer Institute said.