Alcohol giant Heineken saw sales of its beer shoot up last year as punters returned to drinking holes around the world following the pandemic.

The Dutch giant said that sales of its eponymous lager had shot up by 12.5% in 2022, while overall the amount of its beer that was sold jumped 6.9% organically.

Growth had been more sluggish in parts of the world, but was helped by a buoyant performance in Heineken’s Asia Pacific markets where sales soared by more than 29% during the period.

Birra Moretti was a standout performer in the UK, where sales volumes of the Italian beer more than doubled.

It became the leading premium beer in the UK during the year, Heineken said.

The UK was also one of the key markets where sales of Desperados rose. Others included Nigeria, Germany, Spain and France.

It was “the year of the Tiger”, Heineken said, as sales of the Singaporean brand rose by more than 40% globally “driven by the recovery in South East Asia”.

“I am pleased that we delivered a strong set of results in 2022 in a continuously challenging and volatile environment, growing ahead of the beer category in the majority of our markets,” said Dolf van den Brink, who is both chief executive and chair of the Dutch company.

“Our premium portfolio continued to outperform, led by the excellent momentum of the Heineken brand and further propelled by the rollout of Heineken Silver.

“We are innovating to expand our leadership positions in non-alcoholic and in beyond beer.”

He said that sales of beer had now “fully recovered” from the pandemic as sales are ahead of 2019 levels.

However the company still reported a 4.5% fall in pre-tax profit to 4.3 billion euros (£3.8 billion). Revenue rose by more than 30% to 34.7 billion euros (£30.8 billion).