These days, the Coalition will decide whether the excise duty on alcohol will be increased, as HotNews.ro also wrote on Monday. According to a press release from the Brewers Association of Romania, the beer market in Romania shrank by 9% in the first five months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.

As of August 1, 2022, the base excise duty on beer was increased by 20%, and as of January 1, 2023, the base excise duty increased by another 6% to 4.20 lei/hl/° Platon.

“In this context, the budget adjustment measures that are being discussed these days at the Government level risk putting excessive pressure on the market balance,” the Association says.

Among the factors that led to the decline of the beer market:

• a decline in purchasing power and a difficult economic context, given the acceleration of inflation and commodity prices.

• the alarming rise in manufacturing costs that has continued this year, even as certain cost categories, such as energy, have stabilised.

• temperatures are below average for early summer, beer is a highly weather-dependent beverage

According to the cited source, in Romania, production and marketing processes typical of the beer industry are 97% local, and 50% of the ingredients used in the beer production process come from Romanian agriculture.

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