Japan becomes Australia’s main supplier of beer
Japan has officially overtaken Mexico as the main source of international beer across Australia, according to tracking data. db looks at how the sector is adapting.
The shift, which was outlined in the Endeavour Group’s State of Hops Report, has revealed that the beer available in Australia is inching closer to Japanese options and more international styles.
Shifting beer buying trends
As such, the premium import market is undergoing what local reports are calling “intense structural change” as international brewing trends have started to reshape consumer beer buying habits.
The data reveals that premium international options consistently outperform standard domestic value macros in urban hubs and, although Mexico still retains a foothold across the Northern Territory, South Australia, and Western Australia, there is purportedly a push towards brands like Four Pines Japanese Lager which has been seen to be gaining ground.
Domestic brewers are recreating global styles
With these shifting volume trends, independent breweries across Australia are said to be “moving quickly to counter them”. According to a deep dive into the situation, a recent Man of Many report highlighted that the craft segment in Australia has started “introducing domestic interpretations of global styles” in the hope of “satisfying consumers’ appetite for international identities while keeping logistics and production localised”.
Assisting in building a clearer picture of what is happening and using Dan Murphy’s and BWS map, the findings show that the consumption of international beer across Australia directly reflects local demographic concentrations. For instance, the report also showed that “while Japan holds the top position at the national aggregate level, its success is heavily concentrated in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria. Conversely, South Australia and Western Australia under-index in Japanese beer sales”.
Expats and affluent drinkers drive stock decisions
Looking at why these shifts are happening, the research identified that more than one-third of Western Australian postcodes feature a high concentration of residents born in the UK. It was also noted that this demographic presence directly corresponds with the region’s massive over-index in British beer imports and these preferences have nudged Australian retailers to abandon generalised stock plans in favour of localised individual-store ranges to command more appeal.
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Socioeconomic data shared in the report has also highlighted that international beer performance is directly tied to neighbourhood affluence. The data showed that within the high socioeconomic postcodes, as classified by the SEIFA index, there was a strong preference for both international and domestic craft beer.
The escalating consumer demand for global beer flavour profiles is reportedly driving what Australian press is calling “defensive action from local commercial manufacturers”.
Naturally, Australia’s brewers don’t want to give up shelf space to overseas multi-national beer companies and so domestic brewers are now said to be “counter-brewing to keep manufacturing revenue within domestic borders”.
Co-existing
Added to this, to combat the shift, or rather to coexist alongside it, the report outlines that “local producers are currently releasing domestic iterations of everything from super-crisp Japanese rice lagers to clean, easy-drinking Mexican-style lagers”.
This approach is said to assist in allowing Australian business owners across both retail and hospitality to capitalise on global drinks trends while “bypassing international shipping delays and variable supply costs”.
Mainstream beer options like Balter Cerveza have been identified as a example of how this has worked, effectively “redirecting import interest back into the local independent ecosystem”.
These examples of matching the flavour profile of global beer imports while keeping production domestic has meant that Australian suppliers have started to effectively protect their local volumes.
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