Beer owners point out that their business would be much easier for them if there would be a decrease in the excise tax which they need to pay on beer produced in small breweries because they say they are now running an unequal battle with large industrial brewers.
The Academy of Beer in Podgorica was opened in November last year, its founder is the company Monteko based in Danilovgrad.
The representatives of this brewery say that they came to this idea because the production of local craft beer is a trend that has been accelerating for two decades and is now dominant at the world market.
"Keeping this in mind, we wanted to offer something new to the local market and awaken consumer awareness of domestic brands. We are very pleased with the results so far, and the fact that regardless of the pioneering enterprise, this beer is very well accepted. This gives us an additional stimulus for further production and experimentation with new beers," said the brewery. The Academy of Beer offers five standard beers, and so far this brewery has produced a total of nine sorts of beers.
The representatives of this brewery also announced the expansion of production. In this brewery, the problems of small brewery business appear to be the result of an unequal race with large industrial producers.
Alepivo, a Herceg Novi company, founded a small brewery in this town, which started production at the end of last year. Mirko Žmukić and Siniša Kostić, owners of this brewery, stated that for now, they produce two types of beers.
"Basically, we have just started, with the beginning of the holiday season the sales have started somewhat better, but we are not yet in the full capacity. We are able to produce 800 liters of beer per week; however, we have not achieved this level of production yet," said Žmukić.
He adds that beer is now being sold mainly in the territory of Herceg Novi since bottling has not yet begun. And in the small brewery in Herceg Novi, they consider that the excise tax is one of the business obstacles.
"For us, craft breweries that are not big industries would mean a lot if the excise tax would be reduced," Žmukić pointed out.
He says that in essence, they do not have any other business problems. According to him, they have some fixed costs that are high because they use only natural raw materials such as hops, barley malt and beer yeast imported from Germany.
Text by Pobjeda, on July 23rd, 2018, read more at CdM
