Farmers benefit least | Only $160 million of the $14 billion industry goes to farmers, says report
Raise a glass to the flourishing Canadian beer sector, although farmers should raise only half a glass.
It is a $14 billion dollar industry that generates almost $6 billion in government tax revenues, but the farm base of the Canadian beer industry receives little of it.
A Conference Board of Canada study of the “beer economy” calculates that malting barley and hop producers who produce the basic ingredients of the beer industry receive just $160 million in annual sales.
However, beer manufacturing and sales produce more than 163,000 jobs in the economy, including more than 20,000 jobs on the Prairies.
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“The beer economy supported one out of every 100 jobs in Canada on average in 2009-11,” said the report, commissioned by Beer Canada, an industry advocacy group.
The jobs are generated mainly in the brewing, processing, delivery and sales industries.
The report said beer is Canadians’ alcoholic beverage of choice, surpassing wine and spirits by a country mile. For governments it is a cash cow, generating $3.8 billion in product taxes, $1 billion in corporate income tax and $1 billion in personal income tax from those involved in the industry.
“When you drink a bottle of beer, you are supporting not only the beer brewing industry directly but also many other industries along the supply chains, the indirect benefits to the economy of beer consumption,” said the report.
In 2012, the Conference Board report said the brewing industry rated fourth in economic contributions among surveyed Canadian industries, slightly ahead of dairy processing and more than triple the economic contribution of wineries and distilleries.
The report did not offer any offsetting estimates of alcohol consumption costs on the Canadian health-care system.
However, it said farmers get little of this benefit.
“While barley and hops are important inputs into beer-making, the agriculture industry accounts for only a small amount of the beer economy,” said the report.
