Sharp rise in Vietnam beer consumption

Sharp rise in Vietnam beer consumption

Vietnam’s beer consumption rate has been sharply increasing over the past 15 years, while remaining largely unchanged in the rest of the world, a Health Ministry official said.

Vu Thi Minh Hanh, deputy head of the ministry’s Health Strategy and Policy Institute, said beer consumption in Vietnam was likely to continue to rise — by 2025, each Vietnamese person is forecast to consume seven litres of beer a year.

Vietnam now stands in the top three countries in 10-member ASEAN region in beer consumption, Hanh said. Between 2003 and 2010, Vietnam’s beer consumption doubled compared with the previous period.

A survey in 2012 revealed Vietnam consumed 3bn litres of beer a year and 68m litres of other alcohol, making the country the third largest per capita consumer in Asia, just behind China and Japan. Vietnam’s per capita income in 2012 was USD1,540.

Up to 69 percent of men and 28 percent of women drank beer and alcohol, the survey indicated.

Experts said abuse of beer and alcohol is the direct cause of some 30 diseases and the indirect cause for many others. Along with tobacco, alcohol is a leading contributor to eight cancers, high blood pressure and heart diseases.

“Drinking too much beer and alcohol also contributes to domestic violence, social disorder and traffic accidents,” Hanh said. A 2010 survey showed 20.8% young men said they suffered from injuries due to driving vehicles after drinking.

Hanh said up to 60 percent of traffic accidents, 68 percent of domestic violence cases and 38 percent of incidents of social disorder can be attributed to the abuse of alcohol.

Every year, about 2.5m deaths are alcohol-related, accounting for 2.8 percent of global mortality.

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