As the economy stabilizes, consumers are trading up for the premium beer offerings available through the imported beers segment, says Edward Hyseh, U.S. research analyst for Euromonitor International, Chicago. “Imported beers did much better than domestic beers,” he says. “Imported beers grew in terms of volume by 4 percent and in value nearly 7 percent.”
In fact, 43 percent of U.S. consumers have consumed imported beer in the last six months, according to a report from Chicago-based Mintel released in December 2013 titled “Beer – US.” This trend is happening in spite of the fact that imported beers tend to be priced higher than domestic beers, Euromonitor’s Hyseh notes. However, consumers are willing to pay that extra amount to experience beers that are different than the domestic beers with which most consumers already are familiar, he says.