China increased beer imports 15.69% in the first nine months of 2026

China imported 323.3 million liters of beer worth $474 million in the first nine months of 2026, as purchases from abroad rose in both volume and value, according to figures reported on Tuesday, November 3, by Beijing Business Today and reproduced by Eastmoney.

The data show that beer import volume increased 15.69% from the same period in 2025, while the value of those imports climbed 24.41%. Based on the published figures, that means China brought in about 43.8 million more liters of beer than a year earlier and spent roughly $93 million more on those purchases.

The gap between the two growth rates suggests that the rise in China’s beer import bill was driven by more than higher volumes alone. The average declared import value increased to about $1.47 a liter from roughly $1.36 a liter in the January-through-September period of 2025, an increase of about 7.5%.

That increase in the average value per liter helps explain why total spending on imported beer rose faster than the amount of beer entering the country. A higher average import value can reflect several factors, including a shift toward more expensive products, changes in the mix of supplying countries, freight and contract differences, or higher prices for some categories of beer.

The published report did not include a country-by-country or product-by-product breakdown. Without that detail, the higher average value does not by itself show that overseas suppliers broadly raised prices by 7.5%. It only shows that the overall value of imported beer, divided by total volume, moved higher than it did a year earlier.

The figures refer to imports, not retail sales to Chinese consumers. That means the data capture beer entering China from all foreign sources during the period, rather than how much beer was sold in bars, restaurants, supermarkets, or online stores inside the country.

Even so, the import numbers point to firmer demand for foreign beer in China, or at least stronger buying by distributors and importers, during the first three quarters of 2026. The increase in volume indicates that more beer was shipped into the market, while the sharper increase in value suggests the imported basket carried a higher average price tag than in the same stretch of 2025.

China is one of the world’s largest beer markets, but imports make up only a small part of total beer consumption. Changes in import data are therefore often read as a signal about trends in premium products, international brands, and purchasing by urban consumers and hospitality businesses rather than a full picture of the country’s beer market.

The report cited by Eastmoney attributed the figures to a Chinese industry body for alcohol importers and exporters. Because the published numbers were rounded, the absolute increases and the per-liter averages are approximate calculations based on those totals rather than more detailed customs line data.

Still, the direction of the movement is clear. China bought more imported beer in the first nine months of 2026 than it did a year earlier, and it paid more for those purchases at a rate that outpaced the increase in volume.