The Craft Beer Industry Association has signed 63 brewery members in its first full year of operation, a figure the body describes as a proud result but which represents less than a third of the roughly 200 craft breweries it counts across the country.
In his chairman’s report in the Association’s first annual report, Stone & Wood’s Brad Rogers said the year had seen momentum build across all five of the membership categories the CBIA has created, spanning national brewers down to nano, pub and contract operators.
The association says it will continue working to sign 100 per cent of all eligible breweries, a target it acknowledges is “a huge task, but one that is achievable.”
The report puts the size of the Australian craft segment at between 65 and 70 million litres, or roughly 2.5 to 3.0 per cent of the total beer market by volume, but notes these numbers remain an approximation. The CBIA has engaged Roy Morgan to survey members on volume, revenue and staffing because, without data direct from the industry, “the industry will continue to be unable to accurately talk quantitatively in any public sense with any authority,” Rogers’ report said.
That Association has a five-year goal to double the category from 2 to 4 per cent of total beer value.
Excise the central advocacy fight
On policy, the Government Liaison & Advocacy committee, chaired by Owen Johnston reported a win in the lift of the ATO excise rebate to $30,000 and removal of the volume threshold, which the chairman’s report called “a huge win for small craft brewers.”
The committee set out a three-tier excise agenda: incremental changes such as CPI indexation of the rebate; new measures including a push to cut the minimum keg size from 50 litres to under 20 litres on occupational health and safety grounds; and, hardest of all, a long-term shift to uniform volumetric alcohol taxation, which the committee conceded the major parties would move very slowly on.
Building consumer education
The Consumer Awareness & Education committee, chaired by Cowaramup’s Jeremy Good, is building a consumer-facing website, whatiscraftbeer.com.au, at an estimated cost of around $20,000, with a launch targeted for November 2013.
On the professional side, the association is working with Edith Cowan University, the University of Ballarat and TAFE providers on student placements, and has been approached by Charles Sturt University to help develop postgraduate brewing and business courses for delivery in 2015.
The CBIA will also help administer two $5,500 Pink Boots Society Australia grants for women working in the industry.
