2026-08-20
Poland’s beer market contracted sharply in the first half of 2026, with sold production of alcoholic beer falling 11.9% from a year earlier even as non-alcoholic 0.0 beer continued to post strong growth.
The figures, published by Statistics Poland, known as GUS, show a widening split inside one of Europe’s largest beer markets. In the January-June period, sold production of 0.0 beer rose 16.2% from the same period of 2025. In June alone, the increase in 0.0 beer accelerated to 30.1% year over year.
The data point to a 28.1-percentage-point gap between the alcoholic and non-alcoholic segments in the first half of the year. The current GUS-based publications cited by the industry do not provide absolute volumes for those categories, and the indicator measures sold industrial production rather than final consumer purchases.
The decline adds to a longer slide in the Polish beer market. The Polish Brewers Employers’ Association, Browary Polskie, said the market has been shrinking for eight straight years. According to the group, sales fell by more than 7.5 million hectoliters between 2018 and 2025.
Bartlomiej Morzycki, the association’s director general, said the first half of the year showed no sign of a rebound for traditional beer. He attributed the drop to several factors, including the broader shift toward low- and no-alcohol products, health-focused consumption trends and pressure on household budgets. He also said beer is highly sensitive to price changes and that its retail price has risen by more than 40% in recent years.
The industry’s reading of the market is consistent with broader changes in drinking habits in Poland. Browary Polskie cited recent CBOS survey data showing that 73% of Polish adults say they drink alcohol, the lowest share recorded in the history of that survey, which stretches back nearly 30 years. At the same time, 23% of respondents said they abstain from alcohol. Beer remained the most commonly preferred alcoholic drink, but it was chosen by 30% of respondents, down 9 percentage points from 2019.
While alcoholic beer is losing volume, breweries have continued to invest in 0.0 products, which have moved beyond a niche category. Industry representatives say the products are now used as everyday alternatives by drivers, office workers and consumers who want to reduce alcohol intake without giving up beer-related social occasions or taste. The association also said many breweries have expanded the segment with sugar-free and calorie-free variants, as well as products marketed with added vitamins or electrolytes.
Even so, the growth of 0.0 beer has not been enough to offset losses in the core market. That imbalance is central to the industry’s current concern. In its statement, Browary Polskie said the high growth rates in non-alcoholic beer still do not stop the overall market from declining, despite years of product development and marketing in the segment.
The group also tied the downturn to the wider economy. It said the brewing sector supports about 85,000 jobs across farming, trade, hospitality, logistics and related industries. According to the association, beer production accounts for about 0.56% of Poland’s gross domestic product and contributes billions of zlotys in taxes and other public charges each year.
The organization said brewing uses large volumes of agricultural inputs and packaging, including about 400,000 tons of barley malt, 75,000 tons of other grains, more than 130 tons of hop alpha acids and about 30,000 tons of apples for flavored beers each year. Lower production, it said, means weaker orders for farmers, packaging suppliers, transport companies, retailers and restaurants.
At the same time, the sector is facing a series of possible policy changes that breweries say could add more pressure. The association pointed to proposed amendments to alcohol market rules, possible changes to the current excise tax path, a broader sugar levy and a higher value-added tax rate for non-alcoholic beer. Morzycki said the brewing industry has not previously had to deal with so many parallel regulatory proposals at once, and he argued that their combined effect could weaken the competitiveness of beer within the alcoholic drinks market and threaten the stability of parts of the supply chain.
Those arguments come from the industry, and they are part of a broader political debate in Poland over public health, alcohol policy and taxation. Brewers say non-alcoholic beer supports lower alcohol consumption and should be encouraged rather than subjected to tighter financial pressure. Supporters of stricter rules argue that stronger regulation and taxation are justified on health grounds.
For now, the official production data show a market moving in two directions at once. Traditional alcoholic beer is falling at a double-digit rate, while 0.0 beer is growing quickly from a smaller base. The first trend remains far larger in its effect on the market as a whole, and the latest half-year figures suggest that the expansion of non-alcoholic products still does not make up for the decline in Poland’s main beer category.