Welcome to our penultimate print edition of 2024. The next time you’ll see us is when we publish our flagship Australia’s Top 100 Food & Drink Companies report in early December.
You may have noticed that bottle of beer on the cover, a slight deviation from our usual cover models of processing equipment, packaging materials, and ingredients.
Stefan Di Benedetto on Solbevi's growth.
The beverage sector is one of the most dynamic in our industry, even more so for beverages with an ABV (alcohol by volume). Beer is a particular case in point, with national consumption falling as consumers’ tastes change.
Lion has been developing beer varieties to appeal to new drinkers and reignite interest with its traditional market since in launched its first low-carb beer in 2005. With its latest ultra low carb release, we look at what’s happening in that channel and how Lion is staying ahead of the trends. That’s on page 16.
And on the topic of beverages, our Beverage Business special feature this issue (from page 18) is packed with profiles of young-guns, industry experts and the latest equipment.
Our Meat, Fish & Poultry feature (from page 26) looks at exactly that, with a profile on one of Australia’s largest table egg producers (page 28), innovative food waste solutions by Food Recycle using jade perch (page 26), and more.
Finally, our Blue Sky feature profiles Rare Foods Australia (RFA) and its latest venture. Not content with being the world’s only wild enhanced abalone fishery (more about that on page 30), RFA has turned its aquatic gaze to subsea wine production. That’s a must read on page 12.
From ‘healthier’ beers to deep sea cellaring, this issue reflects – yet again – the diversity, tenacity, and ingenuity of our food and beverage sector. Many of these companies might not be in the Top 100, but their contribution is just as valuable.
