Sunday, 13 July 2025

UK Beer exports to Africa in 1898

A Barclay Perkins Export Imperial Stout label with the text "Brewed at the brewery. Produce of Great Britain, contents 22/23 fl. oz. or 63/65 cls."
Time for the second part of this series. This time looking at exports to Africa.

Much less beer was exported to Africa than Europe. And it mostly went to just two places: Egypt and South Africa. You may be spotting a trend here. Both locations had a considerable British military presence. I'm starting to wonder now if most British beer exports were being consumed by service personnel.

The only exception to this seems to be foreign East Africa, which is in place number 3. What would that cover? I guess Somalia, German East Africa and Mozambique. None of those sound like places likely to take much British beer. Especially odd, as fuck all beer was going to British East Africa. Far less than to Ascension and St. Helena, two tiny islands. Mauritius is another small island taking quite a lot of beer.

Again, I'm shocked at how little Scottish beer there was. Its share of 15% was double that of exports to Europe. But way below its 25% share of all exports. Where was all that Scottish beer going? Only South Africa was receiving about the average amount.  

UK Beer exports to Africa in 1898
Destination From England. From Scotland. From the U.K.
  Quantity. Declared Value. Quantity. Declared Value. Quantity. Declared Value.
  Barrels £ Barrels £ Barrels £
Egypt 22,305 59,450 1,134 4,544 23,439 63,904
Tripoli and Tunis 28 78 - - 28 78
Algeria 2 8 - - 2 8
Morocco 85 288 - - 85 288
West. Africa, Foreign 181 651 - - 184 651
Western Africa, British 1,702 6,060 - - 1,702 6,060
Ascension & St. Helena 1,395 4,120 - - 1,395 4,120
British Possessions in South Africa 19,959 71,077 6,030 22,383 25,989 93,400
Eastern Africa, Foreign 1,906 8,355 454 2,124 2,360 10,479
Eastern Africa, British 103 506 - - 103 506
Abyssinia - - 18 82 18 82
Madagascar 49 143 - - 40 143
Bourbon 18 62 86 402 104 464
Mauritius 1,639 5,007 881 2,751 2,520 7,758
Total 49,372 155,805 8,603 32,286 57,969 187,941
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, June 15th 1899, page 344.
Note:
Year ending 30th September 1898.

 

4 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

We always hear that German brewers eventually displaced the British in export markets and that it was because lager beer was more stable, but I'm wondering also if their beer was just more to the taste of the local populations.

Anonymous said...

I'd be curious if those odd numbers for some locations just reflect waystations.

I know in the present day if a US company ships goods to Mexico or Canada for processing and then those goods are shipped back to the US, they can be counted in both the export and import numbers even though the net result is zero.

Grayson said...

I just want to know who the lucky person in Algeria was to get 2 whole barrels, probably to himself, for just £8.

Anonymous said...

Not as much of a culture of export grade lager than ale or stout.
Oscar