The world’s second-highest non-alcoholic beer consumption is found in Japan. Fiona Holland from Just Drinks investigates if international companies have a chance in a market dominated by regional behemoths.

Among all the substitutes for alcohol, non-alcoholic beer has gained the most traction thus far.

While still tiny, alcohol-free beer is eroding the sales of traditional beers in North America and western Europe, whether it’s due to the emergence of specialists like Athletic Brewing in the U.S. or Big Drop in the UK, or the advance of multinationals like Heineken or Asahi into the market. 

However, Japan is the biggest market for non-alcoholic beer, followed by Germany. Japan consumed more than 3 million hectoliters of beer in 2023, up more than 20% from 2018, according to data from Just Drinks’ parent company, GlobalData (that compares to 47.7 million hectolitres of beer last year).

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SOURCE: Just Drinks
PHOTO CREDIT: Ned Snowman/Shutterstock.com