Since the beginning of the year beer sales in Bulgaria dropped by 6%, said the Bulgarian Brewers Union at a news conference. 

This, according to the chairperson of the Union Ivana Vladimirova, is mostly due to the inclement weather (beer is considered a mostly summer drink in Bulgaria and is usually drank when the weather is hot) and financial worries of the households. 

At the same time, the average Bulgarian needs to work 45 minutes to buy a litre of beer, even though it was recently reported that Bulgaria is in the top 10 of cheapest beers in the world. 

For comparison, the average German works seven minutes for a litre of beer and the average Romanian – 24 minutes. 

Most preferred in 2013 was the beer in two-litre PVC bottles. It accounted for 60% of beer sales. Glass bottles come second with 25%, followed by cans – 10% and draught beer – 5%. 

The Brewers Union data shows, that the average beer consumption of beer in Bulgaria in 2013 was 74 litres per person. Bulgaria lags far behind the leaders Austria (108 litres) and Germany (107 litres).