It comes as no surprise that the beer industry is prominent in Arizona, but what is its economic impact on the state?
A report commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association lays out the economic impact on the nation and the states throughout, including Arizona.
According to the report based on 2018 Arizona data, the nation’s beer industry contributes more than $5.4 billion annually to Arizona’s economy.
The economic impact of brewing, distributing and retailing is more than $5 billion and the supplier economic impact is more than $1 billion.
Beer industry suppliers include agriculture, travel and entertainment, construction and more.
“The beer industry is important to Arizona first and foremost because there are 146 breweries in the state that act as a job multiplier and an economic multiplier for the rest of the state,” said Jim McGreevy, Beer Institute president and CEO.
The report shows that the beer industry directly created 23,860 jobs in Arizona. With the suppliers that support the industry and the economic gains the industry induces, it created another 20,092- totaling 43,952 jobs in 2018.
The industry supports jobs in brewing and direct distributing and retailing, but it also supports jobs in fields some may not expect.
“We estimate that one job in a brewery creates another 31 jobs in industries outside of brewing. That would include the agriculture industry, the can and bottle-making industry, the distributors that deliver beer, the bartenders and others that serve beer,” McGreevy said.
The induced economic impact of the industry is more than $1.7 billion, according to the report.
While the beer industry supports Arizona, the state’s leaders work to support the industry.
In 2015, Governor Doug Ducey signed into law S.B. 1030, also referred to as the “beer bill.”
The law allows brewers to produce a maximum of 200,000 barrels a year cumulatively across all their locations. Previously, brewers could only produce 40,000 barrels per year at each other location.
McGreevy explained that Arizona’s weather may contribute to its healthy beer industry.
“More people are drinking beer to refresh themselves than maybe in Minnesota or some other place that has cold, cold winters,” McGreevy said.
He noted that nature plays an important role in terms of hops and boiling production- and presumably consumption.
“Certainly, the hotter the weather, probably the more beer drinking that happens. So, that’s an economic engine on its own,” McGreevy said.
In addition to the more than 40,000 jobs the industry creates in Arizona, it also generates a total of $722,792,000 in tax revenues of which $418,315,300 are federal and $304,476,700 are state and local.
The total consumption taxes paid reached $233,575,500, according to the report.
This story was originally published at Chamber Business News.
