Excise tax cut for craft breweries

Craft breweries from 2025 will be able to apply a reduced excise duty, as was the case for the years 2022 and 2023. This is stipulated in an amendment to the budget bill approved by the House committee. Up to 10,000 hectolitres the excise duty will be reduced by 50 per cent, if the annual production is between 10,000 and 30,000 hectolitres the rate will be cut by 30 per cent, and finally by 20 per cent up to 60,000 hectolitres.

Satisfaction on the part of sector operators. "With a limited economic intervention, less than 3 million euros, the government is concretely supporting national craft beer production, giving that support that for the sector, made up of small and very small enterprises, represents a decisive flywheel for growth," said Vittorio Ferraris, director general of Unionbirrai. In this way, we are giving further impetus to the artisan brewing world, which, with its ideas and ferment, has been able, in just a few years, to make its production a boast of Made in Italy in the world. We hope that the work will continue in a choral manner through a reduction of bureaucracy and a modernisation of standards so that they can better respond to the needs of a strongly evolving sector'.

"The reduction in excise duty represents an aid for the growth of the supply chains from field to table, which in Italy are already seeing the development of important experiences, through the growth of Italian barley and hop production, with an important induced effect on the economy of the territories, said the president of the Consorzio Birra Italiana Teo Musso.

This is a sector that today sees almost 1,200 breweries throughout Italy, of which, according to Coldiretti-Consorzio Birra Italiana estimates, about a quarter are agricultural, i.e. they produce the necessary raw materials themselves, with a constantly growing percentage. Craft beer has increasingly entered the homes of Italians, with a production of 48 million litres, of which almost 3 million litres are destined for export, and a value of over 430 million euro on the away-from-home market, guaranteeing 92,000 jobs between direct and indirect employees. "A phenomenon on which, however, weighs the record increase in production costs linked to international tensions and the effects of climate change. Drought and bad weather have caused a significant reduction in barley production,' concludes Coldiretti, 'causing yields to fall drastically, even though the product is still of excellent quality.

Assobirra also applauds the measure, but also takes the opportunity to renew the request for a structural reduction in the general excise duty rate: "We hope that it will already be accepted in the Decreto Mille proroghe, in favour of the entire sector in which b>the large breweries buy almost all Italian barley malt. This would both relaunch investments along the entire supply chain and help the weaker consumer groups, who are known to consume the iconic 66 centilitre formats on their tables, on which taxation remains disproportionate, weighing more than 40% of the price,' reads a note.