Australia has long held a reputation as a country of beer drinkers. Remember that 2 litre Darwin stubby? Well that reputation may be history.
New research shows we’re leading the world in the consumption of lower strength beers with only Sweden, which has significantly lower tax rates for mid-strength beer, matching the size of the category here.
A research paper by Professor Kym Anderson, of the School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide, found that more than 30 per cent of beer sales in Australia are now mid, low or zero strength – up from 23 per cent in the 1990s.
The study found that the shift to no-, low- and mid-strength beers resulted in drinkers reducing their consumption of pure alcohol through beer by around 3 million litres over the past decade.
Other key trends noted in the report:
• As beer volumes have dropped significantly since their peak in the 1970s, consumers are drinking more responsibly as they shift to premium beers.
• Premium beer consumption rose from 28 per cent in 2011 to 43 per cent in 2018.
• The share of alcohol consumed as beer in Australia, at two-fifths (down from two-thirds in the 1970s), is now the same as in the rest of the world.
• Zero-alcohol beer is growing rapidly, but still represents only 1 per cent of sales, but that share is expected to double in the next few years.
• Australia’s overall alcohol consumption declined by 11 per cent over the past decade compared to the average decline in OECD countries of 4 per cent.
• The number of breweries in Australia doubled between 2015 and 2019 from 360 to 740.
Have you joined the switch to either low- or mid-strength beers or to premium beers? What’s your favourite brewery?
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