The post-pandemic landscape in Belgium—one of the world’s spiritual homes of artisanal beer—has spurred rapid change in a generally conservative industry.
With domestic consumption and exports declining, global brewers cutting costs by moving production closer to bigger markets, and greater competition with other craft beer internationally, Belgium saw a net decrease in operating breweries in 2023.
What does this portend for one of the most creative and influential beer-producing countries? These data points from the Belgian Brewers industry group provide an eye-opening glimpse.