UK beer exports in the 1970s (part one)

As you can probably tell, I'm still busy with my book on the 1970s. It's coming along very nicely. Currently, I'm at 35,000 words and 115 pages. Most of the bare bones are there. I mostly just need to flesh it out with memories of the period.

This is the section on beer exports.

The UK had always exported a fair amount of beer. Not a huge amount. In the decades before WW II, that was around half a million barrels a year.   Exports were only around half that after war. Only increasing in the 1960s.  A trend which continued in the first half of the 1970s.

First let’s take a look on how those exports broke down by continent.

The peak was reached in 1977, after which they began to fall away again. Despite increasing volumes being shipped to the USA.

The biggest single market for UK exports was Europe. Throughout this period, they accounted for around 60% of UK exports. Second largest destination of UK beer was North America, which took between 20% and 27% of exports.

I would love to know exactly which beers were being sent to North America. Quite a lot of Bass, I suspect. But what about the rest? The 1970s was when brewers like Sam Smith and Fullers were sending lots of beer over the Atlantic. Could those two brewers have really been shipping tens of thousands of barrels?

The figures for exports to the EEC look quite impressive. Until you realise that around half of the 200,000-odd barrels had just one destination: Belgium. You' see more about that in part two.

UK beer exports 1971 - 1975
Continent	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975
Republic of Ireland	10,219	14,466	15,140	14,766	6,478
Rest of EEC	208,088	229,820	245,990	259,843	292,899
Other	35,038	28,372	27,514	28,483	24,993
Total Europe	253,345	272,658	288,644	303,092	324,370
Africa	29,411	12,344	12,276	17,932	88,489
N. America	119,421	113,095	107,465	87,347	87,937
S. America	2,805	2,725	2,142	2,316	3,410
Asia	39,736	28,765	39,138	32,330	32,218
Australasia	951	1,286	1,124	1,002	1,468
Total	445,669	430,873	450,789	444,019	537,892
Source:
The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1980, page 17.

UK beer exports 1976 - 1980
Continent	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980
Republic of Ireland	9,819	14,828	10,850	9,849	19,588
Rest of EEC	278,654	258,528	265,274	272,659	244,455
Other	20,526	21,660	18,422	23,569	16,099
Total Europe	308,999	295,016	294,546	306,077	280,142
Africa	78,397	93,694	16,189	7,822	8,081
N. America	92,564	93,127	107,673	123,421	127,685
S. America	3,917	4,722	6,731	5,414	5,965
Asia	38,631	41,083	64,358	35,205	36,010
Australasia	1,418	992	882	738	667
Total	523,926	528,634	490,379	478,677	458,550
Source:
The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1980, page 17.