Dylan Firth: Brewers Association Executive Director on the rise in Kiwis drinking more beer and less wine

Beer is reclaiming its popularity - in large part due to options with lower carbs and alcohol levels.

Stats NZ has revealed the volume of beer for consumption has risen 5.4 percent to 296 million litres, after successive years of declines. 

Volumes of wine and spirits have fallen.

Brewers Association Executive Director, Dylan Firth, says low-carb beer makes up about 20 percent of the market and is steadily becoming the drink of choice. 

"A lot of those brands are shifting, whether it's the mainstream stuff or craft. So it's really interesting to see, and a lot of that's driven by consumer preferences." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Strong beer seems to have been the drink of choice
last year. New data from statscenez out today. It shows
that a bear consumption was up four and a half
percent overall, while drinks more than five percent in strength
were up three point nine percent overall. The volume of
booze that we're drinking available per person, there was a fall.
It has fallen actually for the past four years. Dylan

(00:22):
Firth is the with the Alcohol Beverages Council.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
He's with me, Hi, Dylan, Yeah, Hi, Ryan, here go.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Good, thank you. So why do you think the move
to beer or why is beer done well? And particularly
stronger beer.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, well, I mean if you look at the data
in terms of percentage, that figure of stronger beer has
increased a little bit, but in terms of the segment
of the market, stronger beer makes up a smaller percentage.
So if you're looking at percentages, yes it has increased,
but in terms of volume overall, actually the biggest shifts
have been in people moving from kind of five percent
beers to say four percent beers, and that's where one
of the trends we've seen, and that's made up from

(00:57):
you know, your more mainstream products that might be a
bit more affordable, so people are kind of looking at
their wallets. But also we've seen a really big shift
to people drinking low card beers and that also sits
in that four percent range. So that's the big shift
in here.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, interesting because I do that. I do the low
card beers now, and I'm a convert. You know, I'll
never go back. You're not as fat than next day.
It's great.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, Well, I mean that's pretty much the biggest segment
of the market now. Low car beers make up about
twenty percent of the beer market in total, so a
lot of those brands are shifting, whether it's the mainstream
stuff of craft. So it's really interesting to see. And
that's a lot of that's driven by consumer preferences.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
What about overall the alcohol available per person falling and
falling for four years in a row. What does that
tell us?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, I think people are moving to a more moderate
consumption model. I think people are deciding to still have
a drink, but drink less or drink lower percentage products.
And we've seen this trend happening both domestically and internationally
for years now, and we've really pleasingly seen that shift
in younger people as well, so more conscious of kind
of how much they're drinking and trying to be cautious
around these things.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Table wine down four point one percent to ninety four
million liters. I guess wine is quite a luxury. I mean,
and you've got to buy and be able to afford
a whole bottle of it.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, one's an interesting one. We've obviously got quite a
big export wine sector, so the demands around that can
be slightly distant when what you'd say with spirits and deer,
because we do export a lot of it, so those
figures have a lot of international impact as well.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Okay with the Dylan, thank you for that, Dylan Firth,
Deputy Chair of the Alcohol Beverages Council.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
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