China remained the world's largest beer consumer in 2007 for the fifth straight year, while Japan fell to seventh place from sixth in 2006 due to a shrinking population of younger people and increasingly diverse consumer tastes, Kirin Holdings Co. said Thursday.
Beer consumption in China last year jumped 11.8 percent from 2006 to 39.13 million kiloliters, whereas Japan's consumption dipped 0.3 percent to 6.28 million kiloliters, the Tokyo-based brewery said.
With their economies strengthening, Russia and Brazil saw their respective consumption exceed 10 million kiloliters for the first time.
Asia, where economies showed impressive growth, expanded its share of global beer consumption by 1.1 percentage points to 31.2 percent, almost on par with 31.4 percent for Europe, the world's largest beer market. Global consumption climbed 5.6 percent to 175.51 million kiloliters.
Kirin's statistics were based on questionnaire surveys conducted on beer industry organizations around the world and other latest data.