Government will reset the beer formula

In an attempt to mediate a series of distinct interests of big country's brewers and artisan producers, the Ministry of agriculture should launch, at the end of October, the second public consultation to market regulations. The first, which ended earlier this year, received thousands of suggestions, but the disputes around the changes divide the productive sector.
In the midst of all the contributions received, two receive more support from manufacturers. The first, according to sources of the private initiative, is supported behind the scenes by Big Pharma, Ambev Brazil and Kirin. The proposal provides for an increase of 45% to 50% in the amount of unmalted cereal-like rice and corn-used in the production of beer. Rice and corn are cheaper than the malt (barley and hops).
The second change, which is the inclusion of products of animal origin in beer-like chocolate (which contains milk) and honey (produced by bees) is defended by small manufacturers. Today, to be classified as beer, the drink should be "obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of the must from barley malt beer and drinking water, by the action of yeast, with addition of hops", as the decree establishes 6,871/2009.
Is this same Decree defines that "part of the barley malt can be replaced by deputies Brewers, whose jobs cannot be more than forty-five percent compared to primitive extract". For businesses, the ideal is to be allowed to raise this index for up to 50% of other carbohydrates. In practice, this increases the margin of big business.
Although not directly affect its business model, the artisan producers propose the segmentation of classification of beer they produce. The idea is to adopt a technical criterion to define exactly what is a craft beer. This criterion would be a minimum percentage of malt present in the product.
The change can cheapen the costs and help the sector to cope with the drop in beer sales. Even with the seasonal consumption, increasing in months of heat and contracting in the winter sales in 2013 are being affected by inflation.
The Associação Brasileira de Bebidas (Abrabe), which represents about 40 companies, said that there is consensus on most of the points that make up the standard review process of the products of breweries. Sought, Ambev said it would not comment. The Brazilian beer industry Association (CervBrasil), which gathers Brazil Ambev, Heineken and Kirin, Petrópolis (or 96% of the national production of beer) reported that it is in favour of revision of the text, in line with the evolution of the sector.
The Brazil is the third largest producer of beer market in the world, behind China and the United States. In 2012, were manufactured by 13.7 billion liters of beer in the country, according to data from the control System for the production of beverages (Sicobe). This volume surpasses in 422 million the result checked in the previous year.
The prohibition of the use of products of animal origin is considered a "straitjacket" by artisan producers. The rule prevents the "innovation" in the field and makes, for example, domestic production of beer with chocolate, that today is prohibited due to the presence of milk in composition.
The Abrabe estimates that there are about 200 microbreweries in the country. They are concentrated mainly in the South and Southeast, regions that represent 0.15% of the brewing sector. According to the Association, the sector shows growth trend and is expected to reach 2% of the market share in 10 years.
"The question of the inclusion of animal products is latent and the current rules are outdated. There is a need to recognize the innovation and new styles of production. Imagine that we could not make a flex, because originally the car was only gasoline-powered ", says the President of the State Association of small and Microbreweries (AGPM), Jorge Gitzler.
Although it seems simple, the addition of products of animal origin must be accurately described in the law. Otherwise, the drink produced could not fit in the current category of beers, that is, would have to be placed in the category of mixed alcoholic beverages. The Ministry of agriculture says that it is possible to change the legislation for the inclusion of substances not allowed.
The Director of the Department of plant products inspection of the Ministry of agriculture, Ricardo Cavalcanti, said that the current decree already comes to beers with vegetables more generally. "The same tactic could be used for products of animal origin, without having to create a specific paragraph for each type of ingredient that could arise," said the Director.