Brexit: Belgian brewers take a risk on the UK beer market
Brexit: Belgian brewers take a risk on the UK beer market
The UK’s impending departure from the European Union has been blamed for weakening the pound, putting London banking jobs in danger and curtailing economic growth. Now it’s putting at risk a fledgling attempt to bring the complexities of Belgian beer to British drinkers.
Twenty beer makers from Belgium, which is home to six of the world’s 11 Trappist breweries, descended on London last month to showcase their brands at the inaugural Ales Tales Belgian Beer Festival, where they are seeking to strengthen their foothold in the UK market.
About a thousand people lined up to taste the hops and barley concoctions, just four months after the UK announced its intention to leave the bloc, which precipitated a 5 per cent drop in the pound and the longest fall in consumer spending in more than four years. And since negotiations still haven’t started on Britain’s future relationship with the EU, businesses are left guessing what a trade partnership would look like, raising the spectre of new tariffs and questioning the reliability of international supply chains. But some brewers are still willing to take the risk.
“I have no clue about what will happen, but it makes no sense to wait,” said Yvan De Baets, co-owner of Brasserie de la Senne, which was an exhibitor at the festival. “The UK and the EU are not that stupid and I’m sure they will negotiate something that both parties will be happy with and exports both ways will still be easy.”
In beer-crazy Belgium, a country of about 11 million people and 1,500 different beers produced by some 224 breweries, craft production has a special status like wine-making in France or the distillation of whiskey in Scotland. UNESCO even added Belgian beer to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As such, these niche producers in a founding member of the EU may prove a gauge for the post-Brexit appeal of continental consumer products.
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