Coopers Brewery, the country’s largest privately-owned brewer, has posted a 4 percent increase in profits for the 2017/2018 financial year, ending June 2018. However, after 24 consecutive years of sales hikes, Coopers saw beer sales drop 9 percent to less than 800,000 hl. This meant Coopers’ revenues declined to AUD 237 million (USD 173 million) from AUD 252 million in the previous year.

Inspired by Seattle’s cooperative brewery, Flying Bike, Australian homebrewers thought: “what a great idea” and decided they could do likewise. Sometime in January 2019, the Hopsters brewery and bar will open in Enmore, which is part of Sydney.

As a leading player in the domestic beer market, Heineken Vietnam was looking to significantly increase the beer production output of its Tien Giang site, located in the south of the country. And they needed to do it quickly. Long-term partner and expert in turnkey solutions for beer players, Gebo Cermex, supported this ambitious goal with a complete line project, featuring among other highly efficient and high-performing solutions the new Sidel filler, EvoFILL Can.

A warning? China is to launch an anti-dumping probe into Australian barley imports. Farmers down under suspect the investigation is politically motivated, after Australia signed security and infrastructure deals to counter China’s influence in the Pacific, local media reported on 18 November 2018.

Heineken and China Resources Beer Holdings (CR Beer) and China Resources Enterprise (CRE) have entered into a long-term partnership to expand their combined market share in the country's rapidly growing premium beer segment. The transaction was announced in August 2018 and was confirmed on 5 November 2018.

If AB-InBev deemed it necessary to officially refute the rumour that it was planning to sell its Korean unit Oriental Brewery (OB), we should remember the old adage: Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Australia has a world class reputation for high quality, clean and green food products. To Chinese investors this is particularly attractive, as food safety is a perennial concern for consumers amidst scandals related to health concerns in recent years. The growing middle class is willing and able to pay a premium for peace of mind.

Guess who reported cartel shenanigans to the authorities? It was AB-InBev. The world's major brewer initiated an anti-trust probe into beer price-fixing, after telling authorities last year that it had detected an industry cartel. It was the news agency Reuters, which broke the scandal.

Statistically, a new craft beer brewery opens every six days in Australia. The industry has grown by almost 200 percent in the past seven years. Fifty-two new breweries, brewpubs and contract brewers opened in 2018, bringing the number of craft breweries to 585 - a 197 percent increase since 2011, or one brewery for every 41,500 people (aged over 18).

Not long, and Australians will be the first to have mutated into setteesauruses. Nowadays you can basically shop for everything online without having to get up from your sofa or settee.