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Munich (dpa / lby) - The closure of the restaurants and the ban on public festivals hit the small Bavarian brewers especially hard.
They "lost 50, 60, 70 percent of their sales," said the chief executive of the Bavarian Brewers Association, Lothar Ebbertz, in Munich on Thursday.
As mixed companies, breweries with their own inn would not even get November and December aid: the black-red federal government made empty promises here, criticized association president Georg Schneider.
The beer output of the Bavarian breweries broke in 2020 by only one million hectoliters or four percent to 22.8 million hectoliters.
Sales even grew in retail.
But at supermarkets and discounters, where bottled beer is "sold off" in large quantities at low prices, small breweries are less present, said Ebbertz.
Every third beer in Bavaria has so far been sold in restaurants and at public festivals, which is the domain of the small breweries, and that is why many “businesses that are pumped up before the Corona are in need of existence,” explained Schneider.
The diverse Bavarian beer culture - "look to Franconia" - is threatened, restaurants are likely to slide into bankruptcy, small breweries could be swept away into the whirlpool.
Politicians who like to adorn themselves with beer tent speeches should consider that.
The slump is gigantic and the new year has not started any better.
After three months of lockdown, the politicians still do not give a reliable perspective, criticized Schneider.
The strong beer season will open on the sofa.
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The slump was cushioned by consumers turning to local beer.
The cash-and-carry markets recorded the greatest growth in retail, and there the small brewers had more access than the large retail chains.
On the other hand, demand in Italy and other EU countries shrank.
Almost a quarter of Bavarian beer is normally exported, but the export quota has now fallen to 22 percent.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210204-99-300723 / 2