Is the Age of Imports Over?

Imported beer shipments for 2004 will likely be up only around 1%. Yawn. That is a sorry number, a far cry from the double digit growth of the 1990s (see chart below). November import shipments, released Wednesday by the Beer Institute, were down 7%, with YTD shipments up 1.2%. It makes you wonder if the age of imports is over, or is it just systemic of the age of beer being over, or neither?In our opinion, the age of the