…Namibia ships 25,236 hectolitres in July
Beer accounted for nearly 90% of Namibia’s alcoholic beverage exports in July 2026, as total beverage exports rose sharply compared with both the previous month and the same period last year.
According to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), Namibia exported 25,236 hectolitres of beer during the month, representing 89.5% of the 28,188 hectolitres of alcoholic beverages shipped to foreign markets.
Overall beverage exports reached 28,609 hectolitres, up from 17,552 hectolitres in June and 17,655 hectolitres in July 2025.
The Beverage Export Composite Index consequently increased by 62.0% year on year.
South Africa absorbed the bulk of Namibia’s beverage exports, accounting for 62.8% of shipments. Tanzania was the second-largest market at 19.8%, followed by Zambia at 7.6% and the Democratic Republic of Congo at 4.8%.
The strong beer export volumes coincided with increased domestic production of alcoholic beverages.
Alcoholic beverage production rose to 181,646 hectolitres in July from 170,194 hectolitres in June and 162,179 hectolitres in July 2025.
This pushed the Alcoholic Beverage Production Index up by 6.7% month on month and 12.0% year on year.
However, Namibia continued to import significantly more beverages than it exported.
Beverage imports stood at 119,270 hectolitres in July, more than four times the country’s export volume of 28,609 hectolitres.
Imports were also higher than the 117,865 hectolitres recorded in June and 104,202 hectolitres in July last year.
South Africa supplied 91.4% of Namibia’s beverage imports, reinforcing its position as the country’s dominant beverage trading partner. Zambia accounted for 2.8% of imports, Poland 2.0% and Germany 1.8%.
The Beverage Import Composite Index increased by 1.2% month on month and 14.5% year on year.
Despite growth in alcoholic beverage production, Namibia’s overall beverage output fell by 11.1% month on month to 258,443 hectolitres from 290,742 hectolitres in June.
The decline was driven by non-alcoholic beverages, where production dropped by 36.3% month on month to 76,797 hectolitres.
However, non-alcoholic beverage production remained 231.8% higher than the 23,146 hectolitres recorded in July 2025.
The NSA said the production figures were sourced from Namibia Breweries, Coca-Cola Namibia Bottling Company and AB InBev Namibia, while trade data was obtained from the Namibia Revenue Agency.
