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A chill wind has gone through the craft beer industry with the economic downturn driving a handful of brands to the wall, while others have struggled. Rising costs and taxes, market-dominating multinationals and cash-strapped consumers have put the squeeze on the once-thriving sector and prompted calls for intervention from the competition watchdog . Chris Vran (second from right) and partner Brittany Prentice at the GABS craft beer festival.

Credit: Penny Stephens Callum Reeves, the chair of the Independent Brewers Association and the head of brewer Kaiju Beer, said there were now about 700 independent brewers in Australia, meaning there was much more competition within the sector than the several hundred there were about 10 years ago. Kaiju Beer was among those exhibiting at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular, or GABS, at Melbourne Showgrounds at the weekend. Reeves renewed calls for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to examine the market dominance of multinational companies which had contracts for a large proportion of beer taps in pubs.



Reeves said while Lion and Asahi were behind 85 per cent of the volume of beer produced, independent brewers — aside from Coopers — made 7 per cent of the beer sold in Australia but employed more than half the industry’s workers. Assistant Competition Minister Andrew Leigh said in April, following a parliamentary inquiry, that competition in the sector was lacking and urged the ACCC to take a look. David Clark a.

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