OnTap Magazine

BASA recently conducted a Hops Harvest Tour in the Western Cape, in celebration of beer agriculture and its contribution towards sustainable job creation in rural communities. The tour was attended by CBASA, HEINEKEN South Africa and SAB, government officials as well as members of the media. The tour provided us with a holistic overview of the true value of South Africa’s local beer industry, beer agriculture and the thousands of jobs that are supported by it across the industry’s supply chain. The sector provides employment opportunities to South Africans across its hops farms, malting facilities, barley research institute and through the very beer manufacturers and craft brewers themselves. SAB’s hop farm in George alone currently employs over 1 500 people from surrounding rural communities. Our tour included a visit to the South African Barley Breeding Institute (SABBI), located just outside Caledon in the Western Cape and ended with a visit to the SAB Maltings Facility also located in Caledon. HOPSHARVEST: 2022 WHAT BASA’S BEEN BREWING The Beer Association of South Africa has been busy with many exciting initiatives and events over the first six months of this year. We started with a Hops Harvest Tour in March, which was followed by our participation in the World Travel Market in April. Most recently, we took part in the Craft Brewer’s Powwow and sponsored two categories at the African Beer Cup awards in Cape Town. With so much to celebrate, we hoped to take you on a journey of what BASA has been brewing over the first half of 2022. The BASA team showcased its BrewRoutes campaign at the World Travel Market (WTM) in Cape Town this April. The WTM Africa hosts over 6 000 travel industry professionals who attend the WTM as Africa’s leading and only business to business exhibition for both the local and international African travel and tourismmarkets. Our stand at the WTM provided conference participants and exhibitors with all the information they needed regarding the interactive online and digital BrewRoutes map. The WTM proved to be an immense success, and led to many meaningful engagements with industry stakeholders and public representatives. On the first day of the exhibit, we were joined WORLDTRAVELMARKET ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2022 | 9