E-Malt.com News article: Chile: Premium beer from Chile soon to be available in other South American markets

Chilean premium beer producer Kunstmann plans to start exporting its production to new South American markets including Brazil and Peru, La Tercera communicated on January, 20.

The company already exports to Australia, Argentina and Columbia and hopes that the addition of new markets will take sales revenues beyond last year`s US$11 million.

Brazil is increasingly seen as an important market for investment by Chilean business.

However, Kunstmann president Armin Kunstmann insisted that the firm will not neglect the already strong domestic premium beer market.

“The future for the Chilean premium beer market looks good, especially with the increasingly sophisticated tastes of Chilean beer drinkers,” he said. Last year the firm launched a new un-filtered draught lager in the Santiago and Valparaiso regions, and promises to make the product nationally available this year.

Premium beers account for 15 percent of Chilean beer sales, with sales increasing by nine percent in 2009. Kunstmann products currently hold 10 percent of the premium beer market, with the firm looking to expand this share. “We hope to continue growth in 2010,” Armin Kunstmann said.

The Kunstmann brand is produced in Valdivia, capital of the Los Rios region in southern Chile. The company has been brewing since 1997.

The Kunstmann company is part owned by Chilean beverage giant CCU. CCU produces popular brands Cristal, Escudo and Royal, and premium beer Austral. It also holds the rights to the Heineken and Budweiser brands, both of which it brews for the domestic market.

CCU products dominate the Chilean beer market with a share of 86 percent. The company is also the second biggest beer company in Argentina, holding a 22 percent share of the market there.

A CCU study released last year revealed that beer is becoming the drink of choice for Chileans. Between 2004 and 2008 beer consumption rose more than 30 percent, from 27 liters to 36 liters per capita.


20 January, 2010