A summer without beer?
Breweries warn of beer bottle shortages in Germany
Created: 05/18/2022, 16:06
Now beer is also threatening to become scarce in retail: German breweries fear a shortage of beer bottles in the summer.
Berlin – Many things are currently becoming more expensive, be it food, electricity or petrol.
The reason: delivery bottlenecks due to the corona virus and the Ukraine war as well as a lack of raw materials.
This is now also noticeable in German breweries.
Accordingly, there could be a shortage of beer bottles in the summer.
"We see bottlenecks in the summer at the latest," said the general manager of the German Brewers' Association, Holger Eichele, the Bild newspaper on Wednesday (May 18).
One reason is above all the sharp rise in costs in the production of beer bottles, which requires a great deal of energy.
The situation is "extremely tense".
In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain supply chains, which is not least due to a lack of truck drivers in the logistics industry.
Beer bottle shortages in Germany threaten: prices for glass bottles have risen by 80 percent
"Those who don't have long-term contracts currently have to pay 80 percent more for new glass bottles than they did a year ago," Eichele told the Bild newspaper.
"Some breweries are at risk of running empty, they may soon be without bottles." That's why German breweries advise returning empties to retailers as quickly as possible in order to ease the situation.
In Germany there is a beer bottle shortage.
Breweries are struggling with delivery bottlenecks due to Corona and the Ukraine conflict.
© Stefan Sauer/dpa
"The hotter the summer, the more difficult the situation can become," Eichele told the picture.
"Don't hoard empties in the basement, but return them to the trade as quickly as possible." The deputy head of the Berlin-Brandenburg Brewery Association, Stefan Fritsche, said that the shortage of bottles hit small and medium-sized breweries in particular.
"This threatens diversity on the German beer market," Fritsche added.
(ter/dpa)
