Monday 20 December 2021

Dutch beer imports by source 1936 - 1938

Annoyingly, the export figures aren't broken down by destination.  Yet the imports are by source. Still, better than nothing.

Not a great deal of beer was imported into Holland before the war. The vast majority came from just two sources: Germany and Czechoslovakia. With the former definitely the senior partner. Only small quantities came from Belgium, a country which would eventually become the source of most imports.

Some rather unexpected countries appear in the table: Indonesia, Egypt and Curacao. It’s hard to understand the logic behind shipping beer such long distances from places not renowned for brewing.

It’s surprising what a large proportion of imports were in draught form – around 98%. I suppose it reflects the fact that the vast majority of beer was consumed in that format in Holland.

Looking at imports in percentage terms, the dominance of Germany is even more obvious. Over 85% were sourced there. Czechoslovakia us the only other country to hit double figures. 

Dutch beer imports by source 1936 - 1938 (hl)
  1936 1937 1938
  draught bottled total draught bottled total draught bottled total
Total 24,092 559 24,651 24,690 405 25,095 25,436 324 25,760
Germany 20,565 354 20,919 21,155 195 21,550 22,125 192 22,517
Belgium & Luxemb. 851 - 851 800 - 800 528 - 528
UK 117 52 149 107 26 155 108 27 135
France 2 - 2 - - - 5 1 6
Czechoslovakia 2,521 - 2,521 2,549 - 2,549 2,611 - 2,611
Ireland 26   26 2 2 - - -
Denmark - 69 69 - 45 45 - 50 50
Egypt - 1 1 - - - - - -
South Africa - 1 1 - - - - - -
India - 9 9 - - - - - -
Indonesia 9 4 15 14 2 16 27 26 53
Surinam 4 - 4 4 - 4 - - -
Curacao - - - - - - 3 - 3
USA - - - 60 92 152 28 1 29
New Zealand - - - - 5 5 - - -
Source:
De Nederlandse Brouwindustrie in Cijfers, by Dr. H. Hoelen, Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, 1955, held at the Amsterdam City Archives, page 32.

Dutch beer imports by source 1936 - 1938 (%)
Country 1936 1937 1938
Germany 84.86% 85.87% 87.41%
Belgium & Luxemb. 3.45% 3.19% 2.05%
UK 0.60% 0.62% 0.52%
France 0.01%   0.02%
Czechoslovakia 10.23% 10.16% 10.14%
Ireland 0.11% 0.01%  
Denmark 0.28% 0.18% 0.19%
Egypt 0.004%    
South Africa 0.004%    
India 0.04%    
Indonesia 0.06% 0.06% 0.21%
Surinam 0.02% 0.02%  
Curacao     0.01%
USA   0.61% 0.11%
New Zealand   0.02%  
Source:
De Nederlandse Brouwindustrie in Cijfers, by Dr. H. Hoelen, Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, 1955, held at the Amsterdam City Archives, page 32.


7 comments:

InSearchOfKnowledge said...

I could understand that beer was shipped to Indonesia and Curacao, since these both were Dutch colonies. Egypt is weird, since I would assume that the British supplied their troops and officials with beer.

Rob Sterowski said...

Three entire hectolitres from Curacao? I suspect that was one single shipment. Clearly most people would have agreed with you that there wasn’t much sense in bringing it all that way.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if those tiny imports represented beer brewed in those countries or just beer that had originally been shipped to that country which was sent back home when a planned buyer never materialized.

You see some of that with US imports from Mexico, where a certain percentage of beef imports from Mexico actually represent meat from US steers shipped to Mexico which later makes it way back North.

Steve D. said...

Let us recall that Indonesia, Surinam, and Curacao were Dutch colonies. The latter two territories still are, and are likely to remain in that status. As somebody with a soccer [football - but I do not use that word] background, being a citizen of Surinam or the Netherlands Antilles means you can get a European Union Passport to play professionally throughout Europe rather than being in [e.g.] a lower division in Mexico or the U.S.A.

Ron Pattinson said...

Steve D.,

Surinam has been independent since the 1970s. The status of Curacao is more complicated. It isn't, for example, part of the EU like Martinique and other French possessions.

Having looked at the list of weird countries more closely, they all seem to be places where Heineken either owned or had a financial interest in, a brewery. Like Egypt.

Ron Pattinson said...

InSearchOfKnowledge,

the beer was coming from those countries, not going to them. Egypt can be explained because Heineken owned a brewery there.

Rob Sterowski said...

“I wonder if those tiny imports represented beer brewed in those countries or just beer that had originally been shipped to that country which was sent back home when a planned buyer never materialized.”

What tended to happen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when a cargo found itself without a buyer at its destination was that the goods would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, not returned to the port of origin. Old newspapers are full of adverts for such things.

Perhaps trade conditions were more sophisticated by the 1930s though.