Small brewers likely to find 2003 a tough year

Thanks to favorable weather, small and medium sized brewers increased their beer sales by 10-11% last year to 1.2 million hectolitres, but this year their sale are expected to decrease, said Small and Medium Brewers Ass ociation (SMiSB) president Andrzej Olkowski. In 2002 beer sales increased by 8% to 26 million hectolitres. Larger brewers, Kompania Piwowarska sold 8.35 million hectolitres of beer while the Zywiec Group and Carlsberg Okocim sold 8.4 million and 3.6 million respectively. According to Olkowski, currently, small and medium brewers have to cope with strong pressure from hypermarkets and big retail networks, as well as competition from big brewers which block access to sales network. "The government's fiscal policy poses a consi derable problem as well. The government is deaf to numerous appeals to decrease excise duty and VAT on alcohol. The Finance Ministry avoids d iscussing the issue with us," complained Olkowski. (www.onet.pl) A.Z.