LISBON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's beer production increased by 11 percent in 2017 over the previous year, making it one of the three European countries where beer production increased most in the year, Eurostat said on Friday.

The statistics were published to mark International Beer Day, which falls on the first Friday of August. It showed that the EU produced more than 41 billion liters of beer last year, 2.5 billion more than the year before, almost 81 liters per citizen.

The EU statistics office said that beer production increased most in the Netherlands, which pumped out an extra 48 percent, followed by UK, 14 percent, and Portugal, 11 percent.

However, despite the increased production, Portugal is far from being Europe's largest beer producer, a title held by Germany, which makes 8.1 billion liters a year or roughly one in every five liters made in the EU.