While analysts had predicted the fall in wine earnings, many were surprised by the flat beer sales in the six months ended 31 December 2009. CUB, Foster’s domestic beer unit, recorded a 4.7 percent gain in sales revenue but this was tempered by a 1.1 percent decline in the company’s volume share of the Australian beer market, believed to be growing at between 1 and 3 percent overall.

Noted winemaker Brian Croser (ex Petaluma, Hardys etc) recently told a meeting of Australian agricultural economists that the current problems faced by the Australian wine industry can be traced directly to less than ten large corporations which collectively crush more than a million tonnes of grapes a year.

Members of the opposition Liberal Party pounced on Mr Rudd’s remarks, saying a change to the law would deprive 18-year-olds of their rights as adults.

The merger plan, first unveiled in July 2009, would have created a company with annual revenue of about Y 3.8 trillion (USD 49 billion), rivalling the world’s leading brewer AB-InBev in terms of sales.

If a flat tax is introduced it would simplify the tax system but it would change the economics of the entire industry. In a nutshell, cheap wine would increase in price, premium wine would fall, spirits and alcopops would fall, and beer sold in pubs and clubs would rise.

Independent Liquor, which was founded by the late Michael Erceg in 1987 and was sold to a private equity partnership in 2008 following Mr Erceq’s death in a helicopter crash, is believed to be worth about AUD 700 million (EUR 447 million). This is much less than its two private equity operators paid for it three years ago: the equivalent of EUR 650 million.

According to local media sources, the Chinese backyard operators had filled used Corona bottles with other beers of varying quality and some had labels inconsistent with those legally sold in Australia.

Corona Extra, though brewed by Grupo Modelo, is 50 percent owned by AB-InBev. Although Grupo Modelo is in an arbitration dispute with AB-InBev over the latter’s acquisition by InBev, recent reports indicate that a resolution of the dispute could see AB-InBev increase its stake in Grupo Modelo. That way, Corona Extra could become part of the AB-InBev portfolio.

Australia’s unwanted wine lake could double in size over the coming years if a large number of the vines planted during the boom times are not torn up, or the fruit left to wither on the vine, media reports say.

The Ziemann Group has received an order to build a turnkey brewery in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The contract for the engineering and construction of a state-of-the-art plant was signed at a formal ceremony on 13 December. The order has been placed by the Chip Mong Group, a family-owned enterprise.