Polish brewers, including notably Heineken and SABMiller's local units, posted disappointing sales volume growth of 2.8% year-on-year in the third quarter, which is traditionally the industry's best quarter, with sales reaching 8.5 mln hectoliters, Polish beer industry representatives has posted recently , according to Interfax.

The quarter left nine-month sales volumes at 21.5 mln hectoliters, or 3.6% higher against a year earlier. "Although the market grew, there is nothing to brag about," said Nico Nusmeier, Heineken-held Zywiec executive and a representative of Browary Polskie, the Polish beer industry grouping. "The growth is much lower than the 7-11% recorded in 2002 and we must remember that the economy is apparently picking up," Nusmeier told reporters. The paltry growth rate means the year-end industry target of 3-5% growth in sales volumes will be hard to achieve, said Danuta Gut, another industry representative.

Zywiec, which fights for top spot with SABMiller's Kompania Piwowarska (KP), saw nine-month sales growth of 5% while KP observed flat growth and Carlsberg Okocim, the number three, witnessed 7% growth.

Poland's beer industry at least partly blames slow sales on the level of excise tax in Poland and its disparity with the levels of the tax in neighboring countries. Thus, companies continue to call for a reduction, especially in light of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia's entry to the European Union next May. If such a step is not taken, industry reps see a worst-case sales fall of 20% and a resulting loss of 11,000 jobs.

In Poland, one must pay PLN 0.43 in excise for every half-liter bottle, a figure over twice that in Poland's EU and to-be-EU neighbors. Germans pay PLN 0.18 per half-liter bottle, the Czechs PLN 0.19, the Slovaks PLN 0.20 and the Lithuanians PLN 0.21, according to Browary Polskie.

Polish beer sales had risen by 7.7% to 26 mln hl in 2002 against a year earlier. Per capita annual consumption was 66 liters in 2002. Beer has been the alcoholic drink of choice for at least half of all Poles since 2000 and has been ahead of hard liquor/vodka since 1998. Poland was rated the world's tenth biggest and Europe's fifth biggest country in terms of beer consumption last year.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .