Beer’s global economic footprint
The global beer sector reaches far beyond brewers. Myriad firms and individuals are involved in the growing and production of the inputs required by the brewing sector to produce beer. And countless others are involved in taking beer from breweries and putting it in the hands of the consumer, via bars, restaurants, clubs, sports arenas, and shops. These links span the globe, with brewers in one country relying on inputs from other countries and supply beer to yet more countries.
The complexities of these linkages have meant that there has never been a full assessment of beer’s global footprint, until now. However, by using the Oxford Economics Global Sustainability Model, we were able to trace how brewers, distributors, vendors and all of the other firms in beer’s global value chain interact. Moreover, the Model let us describe the scale of these interactions in terms of contribution to economies around the world through GDP, employment and tax revenues.
Commissioned by the Worldwide Brewing Alliance, this first-of-its-kind study investigates the beer sector’s footprint across 70 countries, which account for 89% of global beer production. We find that some $555 billion of GDP was supported by the global beer sector in 2019, sustaining around 23 million jobs and stimulating some $262 billion in tax receipts.
Adrian Cooper, CEO of Oxford Economics, joins John Blood, chief legal and corporate affairs officer at AB-InBev, to discuss the economic footprint of the global beer industry. Listen below:
About the team
Our Economic Consulting team are world leaders in quantitative economic analysis, working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. Lead consultants on this project included:
