China is the world’s largest beer market, and consumers are increasingly shifting to premium and foreign brews from mass-market brands amid rising incomes, reports Bloomberg.
The market share of premium lager in the five years ended 2017 more than doubled, according to data from Passport, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Shen Li and Thomas Jastrzab said last month in a report.
As brewers target discerning drinkers, the center is helping to fuel research of new malt-barley varieties that produce a richer mouthfeel, color and flavor than lower-quality grain.
Canada, the second-largest malt-barley exporter to China, is trying to gain a bigger slice of the burgeoning market from Australia, the top shipper.
