China
16:37, 09-Jan-2018
With beer prices on the rise in China, where is the cheapest pint?
["china","north america","europe"]
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Drinkers in China will have to get used to paying more for their beer after the country’s biggest brewers announced price hikes for 2018.
As the raw materials and labor needed to make beer have got more expensive, the added costs are being passed onto the customer.
China Resources Beer Holdings, the parent company of the world’s best-selling beer brand Snow, said on Monday that it was “moderately adjusting the prices of some of its products in certain regions to mitigate the heightened costs pressure.”
It followed Tsingtao Brewery saying on Friday that it would increase prices of some products by “an average of no more than 5 percent,” and rival Yanjing last month reportedly upped the price of its lager by more than 20 percent.
How does the price of a pint in China compare to elsewhere in the world? Where can thirsty Chinese holidaymakers escape to if they want an affordable drink?
Even before the rise, a beer in Beijing would have set you back on average 3.16 pounds (4.29 US dollars), according to a survey for Britain’s Post Office ranking the world’s cheapest holiday destinations.
You can get the best bang for your buck at the bar in the Bulgarian resort of Sunny Beach, where a beer is just 94 cents, the survey showed. Closer to home in Asia, Bali would be a good bet for a booze-up as the Post Office researchers found the price of a beer to be 1.53 US dollars.
A 2016 report by travel planning website GoEuro put Beijing at number 44 and Hong Kong at number 69 on a ranking of 70 cities by beer price.
Anyone in China used to buying their cans of Snow from a supermarket would be surprised by this foreign data. Outside of bars, mass-market domestic beers can generally be picked up for less than 10 yuan (1.54 US dollars) a pop in Chinese cities.
The GoEuro report was based on a survey of hotels, always the priciest place to imbibe.
Chinese brewer and bar owner Yin Hai said he expected the price of a Tsingtao to rise from 5 yuan to 7 yuan, “a different world” from his bars where most beers are 40 yuan.
Badr Benjelloun, who runs bar-restaurant Caravan in Beijing, said he wasn’t surprised by the big brewers’ price rises. “I expect this to be the trend in 2018. Costs are up across the board and we’re going to have to pass some of it onto customers.”