New projections issued by Euromonitor International forecasting division finds that China's beer market is growing nearly 50 percent annually and will surpass the U.S. beer market in sales volume in three years. The U.S. beer market currently is tops in the world.

The U.S. features the largest economy in the world followed by China with that ranking reflected in beer sales. The U.S. beer market in terms of sale volume was about 20 percent greater than China's in 2013. While Chinese beer sales exceeded those in the U.S. in terms of volume, Chinese sales were worth significantly less in monetary terms.

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Chinese consume twice as much beer as Americans these days. However, the dollar value of Chinese beer sales continues below that of U.S. sales. That's about to change. Forecasters believe Chinese beer sales will exhibit double-digit growth from 2014 to 2017 with more people paying more for beer.

As Chinese incomes continue to grow, spending on beer should grow as well, forecasters said. The convergence of higher Chinese wages and more disposable income with increasing numbers of legal drinking age residents translates into making beer more affordable for people with more money to spend.

Furthermore, while U.S. brewers are consolidating with almost 90 percent of beer sales undertaken by five major companies, China offers foreign brewers more diversity and opportunity, according to analysts. Breweries around the world have picked up on the rapidly emerging Chinese beer market and have begin aggressively marketing in China, according to Euromonitor International.

For example, Carlsberg Group of Denmark, the world's fourth largest brewer, said it would increase operations in China pouring another $250 million into Chinese brewing and marketing efforts. Carlsberg officials said they looked to the China market for continued growth to counterbalance lost sales in Europe due to its recession. SABMiller Pic with more than 200 beers brewed and sold in 80 countries also is expanding aggressively in China.

Tagsbeer sales, worldwide breweries, alcohol in China, U.S. beer, business in China