Beer Sales Decline Almost Everywhere
Drinking and Driving Laws, Non-smoking Bars Kill Ancient Tradition
May 14, 2009
Something strange is happening in the world; beer sales are down in Australia, the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Germany- all places where drinkers have historically been fond of a long cool one. Canada still remains committed, but for how long? Ever since it was first brewed in the early neolithic or 9000 BC, beer has been one of humanity's tipples of choice so this falling off may signal some great change in taste, or is it taste buds?
In some countries, the slowdown is attributed to new drinking and driving laws, in others it's because bars don't allow smoking. However, in the United Kingdom it's simply the result of the recession biting so deep it's keeping people out of pubs.
Beer is Still Big Business
In the US, Nate Silver in his blog Fivethirtyeight.com, tries hard to figure out why revenues are down almost 14 percent. Finally, he can only conclude that people are buying cheaper brands and that the country had been on something of a drinking binge before the financial meltdown. However, there may be one very good reason why sales are down; people are making their own beer.
Despite this, beer is still big business in the US. According to the Beer Institute, through brewers, importers, distributors, brewer suppliers and retailers beer contributes $198 billion to the economy annually. Beer News states that a Beer Institute and National Beer Wholesalers' Association (NBWA) study shows that the industry provides 1.9 million jobs that generate nearly $62 billion in wages and benefits. It paid $41 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes in 2008.
Pessimistic About Beer Sales
One of the big surprises is that even though prices are stable, Germans aren't quaffing suds. Peter Hahn head of the German Brewers Association told the Telegraph Online that he is pessimistic about sales in 2009. Apparently, the average of 109.5 liters that they still imbibe represents an all time low (telegraph.co.uk). In fact, reports Associated Press, sales are down 6.8 percent so far this year.
Belgians famous for the complexity of their beers are following suit. Indeed over the past 25 years consumption has fallen by 45 percent. Speaking to the BBC's Theo Leggett back in December 2006, Theo Vervloet, President of the Belgian Brewers Association said he believed it was all about social change. "More and more (Belgium) is offices, banks and European institutions now. People drink less. Ten years ago you had a factory with 10,000 workers, everyone finished work in the evening and all the guys went out to drink for an hour. This doesn't happen anymore." He has since said on commercial beer site that the slack is being taken up by exports.
Australia's online magazine Foodweek says beer is still the tipple of choice down under but it's ceding ground to wine and mixed drinks (foodweek.com.au). There the market for beer is worth $7.9 billion.
Brewers are Adding Novel Ingredients
With all this doom and gloom in the beer world, what's going on with Canada? According to Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, beer is the leading alcoholic beverage there. In 2007, 10 billion drank it and there seems to be little reason to believe the numbers are appreciably different today. "Canadians are social animals", Danielle Waters told Canoe.ca as she downed a pint in a Toronto pub. "It's relatively low cost. Beer is less expensive than a martini."
It's a shame people are losing their taste for beer because hundreds, perhaps thousands of small brewers are adding novel ingredients such as coffee, chocolate, honey or apricots. They are also aging it in oak barrels. Despite all this, people just don't seem to care. Will the beer drinking habit die out?
 |
