The Australian Real Craft Brewers Association (ARCBA) is set to publicly release a White Paper on the craft brewing that will call for all political parties to support the need for excise relief in the industry and Government funding to be set aside in the Federal Budget, due out next week.
A wrap up of the White Paper is below:
1. ARCBA, a not for profit association, seeks to grow the real craft beer market to offer real choice for consumers, build high quality small independent brewers and strong, sustainable brewing businesses in Australia. To ensure the viability and growth of the Australian small real craft beer industry, we are seeking excise relief and government funding.
2. Support increasing excise tax rebate for small and independent breweries to $300,000 immediately with further increases over time to bring Australia in line with the average for OCED 33 countries.
a. Increasing excise relief supports the creation of jobs, builds local industries and regional employment and grows export and tourism opportunities for real craft brewers.
b. Based on value-add metrics, every $1 million in excise relief provided by the Government to the industry will return $5 million in GST, employment and other taxes and will contribute $27.7 million total economic revenues to local and regional communities. No net cost to the public purse.
c. Based on overseas data, every new job in breweries creates 15-16 new jobs in beer related industries, supply, hospitality, retail and tourism. We estimate growth in the real craft beer industry can generate up to 800 new beer related jobs per $1 million in excise relief.
3. Allocate a portion of excise tax revenues to provide financial support for Real Craft Brewers to develop a national brand, marketing strategy and support for developing export opportunities and building the real craft beer tourism industry.
4. Provide annual funding to improve quality control, education, training and testing to raise quality to world standards, ensure consistency in domestic market and to get Australia’s local, small and independent brewers export ready.
5. Provide access to investment grants offering matched funding for small real craft brewers for improving energy efficiency and growing real craft beer tourism.
6. ARCBA seeks Government support to help develop the real craft brewing industry, increase the value-add to our existing malt export industry and to build the real craft beer into a multibillion dollar export industry
ARCBA Chairman David Hollyoak also released a statement with the announcement: “This White Paper is the first comprehensive look at the real craft beer industry in Australia and the need for change,” he says. “It is time to get behind Australian small independent brewers, bringing Australian craft beer in line with the rest of the world, providing access to investment funding to grow the real craft beer industry and letting Australians enjoy and appreciate craft beers.“
The ARCBA White Paper is being released this morning at a press conference at Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe in Sydney.
