OnTap Magazine

Patricia Pillay As we head into summer, the Beer Association of South Africa has been hard at work promoting the interests of the beer industry as a whole, while also supporting the development of our future leaders and the growth of the craft brewing sector. Perhaps the most exciting event we were involved in during the month of October was the Intervarsity Brewing Competition that was held in Bloemfontein on 21 and 22 October 2022. BASA was a proud sponsor of this event and our whole team headed to Bloem to meet the teams that had entered the competition. Teams comprising of five brewers, from 15 universities took part in the competition and submitted brews across a number of categories. It was encouraging to see so many female brewers participating in the event, with the Central University of Technology (CUT) team from Bloemfontein comprising four female brewers and only one male. We wish to congratulate all the winners across the various categories. We are certain we will be hearing and seeing more of these talented young brewers in the future. BASA is also proud to have sponsored a new award in the competition, called the “Mentor of the year” award. You can read more about all the competition winners below. Another key focus area of BASA over the past few months has been lobbying government for a more harmonious excise regime for the alcohol industry. BASA has already participated in a number of engagements with government in the lead up to next year’s budget speech and has raised that there are a number of current and historic factors that have contributed to a disparity in the application of excise duties within the alcohol industry and which have disadvantaged the beer industry in particular. BASA has made a submission to government that contains several proposals that will create greater consistency within the current excise regime and will create a win-win situation of increased tax revenue while encouraging the consumption of lower alcohol products. We provide more detail on these proposals below. In the last edition of On Tap, I also informed readers about the campaign to see local craft beers stocked in supermarkets, alongside wine. We have had a number of constructive and positive engagements with some provincial liquor authorities on the matter and provide a brief update below. Finally, we kicked off our Brew Routes social media campaign in September and it has performed phenomenally well. We hope that you enjoy reading about all these activities in On Tap this month. If you are interested in receiving more regular updates on what the BASA team is up to, we encourage you to follow our social media pages. Our handles are: Twitter @BeerSA_org Facebook @BeerSouthAfrica Instagram @beer_southafrica We also hope you have a lovely festive season with family and friends and we encourage you to drink responsibly during this period. Cheers! LETTER FROM THE CEO OF THE BEER ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA 6 | Summer 2022 | ontapmag.co.za