Responsible drinking should be of concern

ONE of the major aims of businesses is to make profits. But brewers should go beyond that.

They should be concerned with the ultimate welfare of the consumers of their products.

Responsible drinking should be very close to brewers’ hearts.

As we celebrate Global Beer Responsible Day this month, brewers have to come out strongly and support calls to stamp out alcohol abuse and ensure people are responsible when drinking.

They should also welcome moves to ensure effective management of the production and sale of alcohol.

Brewers should take a responsible approach to alcohol sales and consumption in the country.

Under-age drinking, drink driving and other forms of alcohol abuse are of enormous concern.

Significant time and resources should be invested to create a more responsible approach to alcohol consumption among all consumers.

Brewers should focus on a future that involves lower or no alcohol by volume beers in the future.

The current average alcohol content of most brewers’ beers in the country is 5% and should be reduced further over time.

However, such efforts and vision are being undermined by the increase in cheap illicit spirits in the country.

But this vision is being undermined by highly organised local manufacturers, unscrupulous traders and smugglers of illicit brews, all reinforced by complicit officials turning a blind eye, corruption and ambivalence which are driving a very worrying pattern for our nation.

Government should ban illicit brews which have flooded the market. The rate at which it is growing is alarming.

To make matters worse, these products have misleading names that make the consumer believe they will be a winner in life by consuming them. This is a very misleading messaging indeed.

Most of these illicit brews have alcohol content as high as 43%.

It should be noted that alcohol at 43% has major implications for health and related social ills for consumers and places huge pressure on the medical and family support systems.

To make matters worse, these manufactures are not paying tax.

This means genuine brewers and government are being hampered in their shared goal of providing consumers with high-quality, consistent, properly-labelled, affordable beverages in a regulated manner and with moderate and low-alcohol by volume levels.

A goal that generates tax revenue and protects the population from the enormous health and social damage caused by these products is being hampered.