Japan beer shipments fell 10 % in August 2003 versus August 2002. Beer sales by Japan's five major brewers (Kirin Brewery, Asahi Breweries, Sapporo Breweries, Suntory and Orion Beer) fell 9.9 % in August from a year earlier to the lowest levels in a decade due to the unseasonably cool and wet summer, the firms said on September 10. The five companies' sales of beer and low-malt 'happoshu' brew totalled 592.46 million litres. "Beer shipments were at the lowest level since 1993 ... due to slack personal spending, a delayed recovery in demand after a tax hike on happoshu in May and the effect of low temperatures and wet weather," the companies said in a statement.

12 September, 2003