China world leader in beer production

According to the Belgian news agency Belga, China, the world's biggest producer of beer, further strengthened its dominance of the market last year.

In 2007, China's share of the total beer market was 22 percent, compared to 20.6 percent in 2006.

The data was included in the annual report published this week by Barth & Sohn, the market leader in hop trading and processing in Germany.

According to the report, in 2007, China produced a total of 393.1 million hectoliters of beer, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier.