Slide of imported beers slowed in July. Temporary relief, or sign of a comeback?
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Interesting news on the foreign beer front. Imports of beer into the U.S. have been dropping like a rock this year as drinkers pinch pennies and move to cheaper brews. But that drop slowed a little bit recently.
Imports of beer into the U.S. fell 2.6 percent in July compared to the same month last year, according to the Beer Institute. Imports from Mexico dropped 1.9 percent, Canadian beer imports fell 11.9 percent and Belgian beer imports plummeted 35.4 percent. (Yikes! What happened? I thought we just got done writing about how Belgian beers were hot?)
The decline was partially offset by import growth of 5.1 percent from the Netherlands (home of Heineken), according to analyst Mark Swartzberg of Stifel Nicolaus.
” We find the results modestly encouraging,” Swartzberg wrote. Especially by comparison: Imports were down 7.8 percent in April and 15.2 percent in May.
We’ll soon see if this was a temporary relief, or sign of a turnaround.
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Maybe people are realizing that imports are not worth their inflated price. Especially when one can buy better beer, of the same styles, cheaper from local American brewers. Keep it fresh, keep it local, drink American beer!
What Muleskinner said. American craft brewers make foreign style beers, and they don’t have to ship it across an ocean.