E-Malt.com News article: Italy: Craft brewers grow and add variety to the beer market

Italy was not a country one visited for its beer 20 years ago. Today the situation has changed and the craft beer movement is flourishing, Brewers’ Guardian reported on June, 11.

With openings almost weekly, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of breweries in the country, but consumer website microbirrifici.org currently lists 551 – and this is from a standing start in the mid-1990s.

In the early 1990 beer in Italy was largely a two-tiered affair. Bars mostly sold pilsners designed to quench thirsts. Supermarkets sold much the same products but were also lined with strong, syrupy beers, often imported.

Today there’s much greater variety. A scan of the 24 categories judged at this year's Birra dell'Anno (Beer of the Year) contest reveals Kolsch-style beers, IPAs, weizens and Abbey ales.

As such, Italian craft products are able to command a premium. Drinkers pay around €5 for a glass (40 cl) of 'artisan' beer in a pub or bar. A 750 ml bottle in a shop or restaurant runs to €11 or more.

Nevertheless, the Italian beer market is under pressure. The national trade association, AssoBirra, reports that per capita consumption in 2011 was 29.0 litres, a drop from 31.1 litres per capita enjoyed as recently as 2007.

Production has only marginally fallen during this period, from 13.5 to 13.4 mln hectolitres. The slowdown in the domestic market has been offset by exports, which have risen from 1.1 to 2.1 mhl. More than 60% of this goes to the United Kingdom and nine per cent to the USA.

The domestic per capita decline is coming from the industrial side of the beer market. AssoBirra figures further reveal that between 2007 and 2011 the eight large breweries that are members of the organisation saw their domestic beer volumes fall from 13.6 to 12.5mhl. Non-member breweries and microbreweries witnessed a rise from 280,000 to 500,000hl. Their market share now stands at 2.8 per cent.

That there should be a downturn in overall beer sales is not surprising given the economic trough in which Italy finds itself. But it seems as if there are some who are turning the situation to their advantage and, consequently, helping to drive the microbrewery expansion.

“In Italy there aren't many markets growing,” says Tony Manzi, spokesman for Unionbirrai. “Craft beer is one of the fastest growing and lots of people are targeting this market to survive the crisis.”

Manzi adds that there have been winemakers venturing into beer production and pubs installing breweries to counter the cost of increasing beer prices. Farmers have also been enticed to brew from their own crops, inspired by a tax break for those who make goods out of their own produce.

Additionally, there are still large swathes of Italy yet to fully experience the craft beer boom. Brewing activity remains centred in the north, extending down to Rome. Further south, economic activity has always been slower and the take up in brewing mirrors this. Of the 551 microbreweries identified by microbirrifici.org, just 106 lie in the regions below Lazio and Abbruzzo (roughly the mid-point of Italy) with 39 of those on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.


14 June, 2013