Beer sales in Thailand began growing rapidly in 2016

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Over the first 5 months of 2016, beer sales on the Thai market grew by 7% to 9.52 mln hl. These data are from Bank of Thailand report. And the sales in May grew by 10.2% against May 2015.

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By the end of 2015, the market revived its growth, having expanded by 5% to 21.1 mln hl.

Despite the comparatively high income level, the per capita beer consumption in Thailand is lower than in neighboring Vietnam and China (31, 33, and 36 l/person, correspondently).

However, the retail price in Thailand is twice higher, and resultantly, the share of premium beer on the local market is very high.

The market growth may have been connected to ThaiBev’s successful relaunch of its Chang beer brand last year. According to the company’s report ThaiBev beer sales by volume increased by 61.1% against the first quarter of 2015 and reached 273 million liters.

Japanese company Kirin and Philippine San Miguel Brewery which have breweries worldwide, moved its production to Thailand. The multinational brewing company Carlsberg has breweries in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. It is very convenient to deliver beer to Thailand from these frontier territories.

The authorities believe that the income from beer sales should benefit the state: to contribute to the construction of roads, support the army and finance the work of civil servants.