Chile: Non-alcoholic beer is set to control 5% of the market

A piece of legislation in Chile, known as the zero tolerance bill, reduced permitted alcohol levels in the blood to 0.3% per litre and came into effect in March 2012. Since then, consumers have been seeking out alternative products, including alcohol free beers. Local brewery Cerveza Cristal predicts that non-alcoholic beers could represent up to 5% of the beer market in the medium term. At present, they correspond to 1% of the market overall, although a surge in sales was reported when the legislation was introduced, with many supermarkets reportedly running out of stock. Cerveza Cristal has registered double digit growth for its alcohol free beer Cristal Cero since it was launched in 2008. Growth of up to 300% in this segment has been reported since the new law came in. During 2011, a total of 0.4mn litres of non-alcoholic beer was consumed in Chile, according to Euromonitor, compared to Mexico and Venezuela, at 11.4mn litres and 6.5mn litres respectively. Beer consumption in Chile is about 680mn litres, with consumption per capita at 40 litres per year. © Esmerk Source: La Tercera (Chile), 03 Nov 2012, online