17-06-2025
China-America tariff dispute opens door to China for Australia's craft brewers
Australia's craft brewers are hoping the ongoing trade tensions between China and the United States may provide an opportunity to crack the world's largest beer market.
The United States was quick to capitalise when the craft beer craze first started taking hold in the Asian nation about a decade ago, but Australia has been slow off the mark, valuing its export offering in the wine space more highly.
But with US President Donald Trump's turbulent tariff regime seeing American products disappearing from Chinese shelves, Australian brewers are sensing an opportunity.
Born out of a dairy farm near Busselton in regional Western Australia, Rocky Ridge spotted the gap in the market and decided to take the leap.
"We're sending a selection of different products over just to test the waters, see what works and what doesn't work," founder Hamish Coates said.
"It's really exciting. There's a massive growth in [China's] middle class, lots more willingness to spend on good quality and knowing the provenance of the products that they're purchasing."
Meikei Beverage co-founder Christopher Li has been managing the distribution and marketing side of things for Rocky Ridge in China, as well as a handful of other Australian breweries.
Mr Li said China's craft beer scene had exploded in the past five years.
Rocky Ridge's first shipment of beer is expected to reach China by the end of July.
Mr Li said it will be all systems go, with their main target markets centred in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
"We actually go down to the market, go through the beers, get about 50 to 100 bars to do a tap takeover," he said.
"We get everything in online shops and influencers ready so we're good to push the brand. We want to make a big splash."
Not far from Rocky Ridge's headquarters, Shelter Brewing Co has also been contemplating expanding into Asia.
But chief executive Paul Maley said it required capital they did not have.
He said the financial and administrative burden of Australia's beer excise — one of the highest in the world — and different states' container deposit schemes made it difficult for breweries to get ahead.
"We're a big regional employer. It's mind-boggling to me that the government doesn't want to assist the businesses of our size in the regions," Mr Maley said.
"Meanwhile, it seems at every turn there are opportunities for internationally owned businesses [to expand] in Australia."
Rocky Ridge has faced its own battle with red tape at the local level.
A two-year dispute with the City of Busselton around increasing their wastewater volumes forced them to move some production interstate.
Mr Coates said it was disappointing that the economic benefits of their expansion into China would not all flow to the local community.
The City of Busselton said it was unable to comment as the State Administrative Tribunal was in the process of reviewing the matter.
Both brewers have called on all levels of government to reduce industry roadblocks to ensure locals reap the benefits of a growing appetite for craft beer.
"We want to continue to grow in this region … the flow-through effect for local jobs, for local communities is huge if we get it right," Mr Coates said.
Mr Maley said he appreciated the federal government's recent decision to pause the indexation of beer excise for two years.
He said a wholesale tax review was urgently needed, as well as the creation of a single nationally consistent container deposit scheme.
He said that until those changes came about, the industry's potential for growth — and the economy's by extension — would remain limited.
