(Tiper Stock Exchange) – A strategic food sector of Italy risks getting into serious troublethe beer: the jump in production costs puts its future at risk. And, together with it, the wealth and employment that its supply chain brings to the country. This is what emerges from an analysis by Osservatorio Birra, with the presentation of the 6th Report “The creation of shared value in the beer sector in Italy”made by Althesys.
In a year and a half, since 2021 to the first half of 2022, the prices of strategic raw materials such as corn and malted barley have grown by 80 and 95%; those of packaging and materials doubled, especially glass; even quadrupled those of electricity. In 2022, with the same sales values compared to 2021, for breweries the impact of raw material and energy costs on the value of production increased by +50%. We are talking about an increase of 20 percentage points, even higher than the margin of
sector in 2021 (17.1%).
According to Osservatorio Birra, the consequences for the sector, caught between the increase in costs and the reduction in the purchasing power of Italians, risk affecting value and employment of the supply chain, but also to eliminate that “beer phenomenon” which in ten years has made this drink at the center of Italian gastronomy and sociality. A 5% drop in sector revenues – conceivable on the basis of a classic dynamic which sees a possible decrease in demand in price increases – would lead to operating losses for at least one out of 2 breweries (48%). Those same companies which, in the last 4 years, have never stopped investing (250 million euros between plants and human resources) and which have come out on their own from the two most difficult years ever. Just when the recovery seemed close, the weight of the costs risks adding a new increase in excise taxes on beer, which risks pushing a sector that is already in an unstable equilibrium to the ground. Furthermore, according to Osservatorio Birra, the effects of the increases recorded so far will not be limited to 2022 and companies will have to face a strong uncertainty also next year. From this perspective, 2023 appears to be a challenging year with pressure on margins.
It should be considered, among other things, that according to the study, the beer supply chain in 2021 generated 9.4 billion euros of
shared value, che correspond to half a percentage point (0.53%) of ours GDP and 5% of the funds foreseen by the PNRR. Equally important to underline that beer has not only brought wealth to those who produce it: only 2% of the 9.4 billion of shared value is “retained” by the breweries, the rest is distributed to the workers of the supply chain and to the State. And in fact, every euro of beer sold has generated 6.4 along the entire supply chain. The downstream phases benefited above all from this (distribution and sale, with 7,341 million euros), while beer brought a substantial contribution to the state coffers: 4,206 million euros between VAT, taxes and contributions on income and labour. In addition, the beer chain has distributed 2,348 million euros in wages, giving work to over 95 thousand families, with a value of about 30 employees for each production employee.