How the East Was Won: The Foreign Take-Over of the Eastern European Brewing Industry

Abstract

Eastern Europe is an important player in the European and even in the world beer market. In 2008, the whole of Europe accounted for 32% of total beer production in the world and Eastern Europe accounted for more than half of this (17%). Within Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic are the major beer producers and consumers. Russia, by itself, is the third largest producer of beer in the world and accounted for more than 6% of the world beer production in 2009.