Italian brewers’ association AssoBirra has released its Annual Report 2022, which describes the production scenario, including industries and microbreweries, domestic market trends and import-export trends. (1)
However, opportunities for growth in the Made in Italy brass industry are being held back by a paradoxical excise system. As well as, in the writer’s humble opinion, from the lack of vision on the zero-alcohol and low-alcohol phenomenon.
1) Italian beer, a history of industry and microbreweries
Italian brewing began in the mid-19th century, organizing in Milan in 1907 the first ‘Union of Brewers,’ ‘Association of Brewers and Maltsters,’ now AssoBirra. Industrial production grew rapidly from after World War II until the late 1990s. Thanks to technological improvements, mergers and acquisitions by large breweries (Peroni, Pedavena-Dreher, Wuhrer), investments that accompanied the development of the domestic market. (2)
Craft breweries in Italy took off in the late 1980s, thanks to growing consumer interest in short, local supply chains and technological innovations that enabled the creation of microbreweries. Around 2015, in the wake of the success of craft beers in the U.S. and continental Europe, microbreweries, brewpubs and contract brewering also flourished in Italy. So much so that it has garnered the attentions of large breweries, which have also begun to occupy this segment with various acquisitions.
2) Italian brass industry
CERB-the Research Center for Brewing Excellence, in Perugia-is the first research center dedicated to research and innovation in the brewing industry in Italy. Prof. Paolo Fantozzi, its founder, described the evolution of the brass industry and Italian beer from different aspects. (3)
2.1) Barley crops in Italy.
Barley crops in Italy have been diversified in recent years, integrating barley crops for feed use (high in protein) with those for brassiculture use (lower in protein).
A revolution for farmers who, in barley supplies aimed at malt production for 100% Italian beer, have improved the profitability of barley crops.
2.2) Acquisitions
The great Italian beer brands , over the decades, have been acquired by the giants that dominate the global market (Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, Diageo, Asahi the first four).
The leading Castello – Pedavena beer, the Forst – Menabrea group, and Birra Messina (with the Birra dello Stretto and Birra Doc 15 brands), as well as numerous microbreweries, remain Italian-owned.
2.3) Research and training
Research on the brass and beer supply chain has undergone great development in the Italian university, which now ranks third in Europe in the number of publications on the subject. Pedavena’s historic brewing school has been resurrected and followed up in specialized and university courses, with dedicated bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Udine to Perugia.
The terroir – in Italian beer as in enology – is also the subject of studies (Carbone et al., 2021) that have made it possible to identify the cultivar Cascade as an ideal hop, to be grown in Italy, to offer its own distinct sensory characteristics (in bitterness and aroma) to cervogia Made in Italy. (4)
3) Excise taxes on beer, the paradox of Italian taxation.
Excise taxes on alcoholic beverages are provided for in Directives 92/83/EC, 92/84/EC and Directive (EU) 2020/262, transposed in ltaly by Legislative Decree. 504/1995 (Unified Text of Excise Taxes) as amended. Production taxes and related exemptions apply to beer, wine, other fermented beverages, intermediate products, ethyl alcohol, together.
The paradox of beer, in Italian taxation, is the determination of excise duty on the basis of saccharometric level (degree Plato) instead of alcohol content, per hectoliter of beverage at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (5,6,7,8).
Alcohol and alcoholic beverages are exempt from excise duty, among other things, when used in the manufacture of:
– Final products that do not contain alcohol,
– flavorings intended for the preparation of food and non-alcoholic beverages with actual alcoholic strength <1.2% vol.
The Milleproroghe 2022 decree applied an almost invisible reduction to the excise tax (0.67 percent, from €2.99 to 2.97 per degree-Plato on hectoliter. As well as confirming tax reductions for small Italian brewers (-50% up to 10,000 hectoliters/year, -30% up to 30,000, -20% up to 60,000 hectoliters/year) (10,11).
4) Italian zero-alcohol and low-alcohol beer, the untapped potential
‘It is estimated (Future Market Insights data) that the global non-alcoholic beer market is set to double in value over ten years, from about 18.6 billion to more than 38.6 billion in 2032, growing at an annual rate of 7.8 percent. Abroad, the phenomenon has literally exploded‘.
Non-alcoholic beers (< 1.2% alc. vol)-in addition to meeting the demands of responsible driving and alcohol-free work-are garnering growing interest from consumers more concerned about weight control, abdominal bloating and health. (12) And they can boast, when the relevant conditions are met, of
nutrition and health claims
.
4.1) Nutrition and health claims
The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation ( EC) No 1924/06 prohibits the use of health claims in marketing information (and/or in any communication traceable to economic operators, including on social networks) related to alcoholic beverages (> 1.2% alc. vol). Restricting the permitted nutrition claims on such beverages to only the terms ‘low alcohol‘,‘reduced alcohol‘ or ‘reduced calorie‘.
The alcohol content of 1.2% alc or less. vol. conversely allows the use in the EU of any nutrition claim and health claim, subject to the conditions for each set out in the NHC regulation and its implementing regulation (reg. EU 432/12. See e.g. in Figure 2). Not to mention the opportunity for research and innovation to produce functional non-alcoholic beers (e.g., by supplementing with arabinoxylans and other prebiotic fibers to be extracted by upcycling of spent grain).
5) Interim Conclusions
Centuries-old tradition of Italian beer – coupled with the international recognition of the Made in Italy agribusiness, its terroir and attention to taste-could translate into added value by focusing on identity values linked to territories, such as the use of spring waters (e.g., Pedavena) and local ingredients (malt, hops), as well as the global boom in beers zero-alcohol e low-alcohol (13,14).
Dario Dongo and Andrea Adelmo Della Penna
Notes
(1) AssoBirra. Annual Report 2022 https://www.assobirra.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AnnualReport_2022.pdf
(2) Christian Garavaglia (2021). Industry evolution: Evidence from the Italian brewing industry. Competition & Change 0(0):1-21, https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211007408
(3) Paolo Fantozzi (2017) The Italian Academic Research on Beer: Past, Present and Future. Ital. J. Food Sci. 29(4):565-581, https://doi.org/10.14674/IJFS-1054
(4) Carbone et al. (2021).Tasting the Italian Terroir through Craft Beer: Quality and Sensory Assessment of Cascade Hops Grown in Central Italy and Derived Monovarietal Beers. Foods 10:2085, https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10092085
(5) Directive 92/83/EECon the harmonization of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/1992/83/2022-01-01 Consolidated text as of 1.1.22
(6) Directive 92/84/EEC on the approximation of rates of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/1992/84/oj
(7) Directive (EU) 2020/262, establishing the general arrangements for excise duty. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2020/262/2022-04-26 Consolidated text as of 26.4.26
(8) Legislative Decree. 504/1995. Single text of legislative provisions concerning production and consumption taxes and related criminal and administrative penalties https://www.normattiva.it/eli/stato/DECRETO_LEGISLATIVO/1995/10/26/504/CONSOLIDATED
(9) See d. lgs. n. 504/1994, Articles 17 and 27.3, letters ‘e’, f’
(10) WMD. Circular no. 8/2023. Legislative Decree. N. 504/95. Alcoholic products, beer tax sector. Redetermination of excise, normal and concessional rates. https://www.adm.gov.it/portale/documents/20182/92292784/Circolare+8.2023.pdf/7e137240-ccd0-0ffb-1309-a6b967b16f41?version=1.1&t=1678186462553 Prot. 127929/RU. 7.3.23.
(11) Lollobrigida, reducing excise taxes is good for competitiveness. ANSA. 18.5.23 https://www.ansa.it/canale_terraegusto/notizie/in_breve/2023/05/18/lollobrigida-ridurre-le-accise-e-utile-per-la-competitivita_80eae881-4b12-459c-a31f-e9c010eba92e.html
(12) Dario Dongo. Quality zero-alcohol bubbles, the unexpected success in the UK market. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.1.20
(13) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. Non-alcoholic beer, health and wellness. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 22.3.20
(14) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Non-alcoholic beer, 15 products compared. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 27.9.22
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in Food Technologies and Biotechnologies, qualified food technologist, he follows the research and development area. With particular regard to European research projects (in Horizon 2020, PRIMA) where the FARE division of WIISE Srl, a benefit company, participates.
