+Undoctored
Media release from Alcohol Healthwatch
Friday 26 February 2021, 08:45 AM
2 minutes to Read
Public health experts and social service and addiction services are alarmed at data released today from Statistics New Zealand showing rapid, substantial increases in the amount of alcohol on the shelves in the second half of 2020. This indicator represents the amount of alcohol excise paid by alcohol companies and is a proxy measure for the population’s drinking.
Dr Nicki Jackson, Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch, and Lt Colonel Lynette Hutson, director of Salvation Army Addiction, Supported Accommodation and Reintegration Services (ASARS), say this increase is concerning for families already under pressure from job loss and uncertainty created by the COVID pandemic.
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The clink of beer bottles used to mean alcohol was being consumed. These days that’s not always true with an increase in the production, sale and consumption of zero alcohol beer.
The amount of beer available for public consumption dropped during the year of Covid-19 as wine and hard liquor grabbed more of the market. But brewers are taking solace in the rise of sales of alcohol-free beer, which are not represented in Statistics New Zealand’s latest tally of the quantity of alcoholic drinks available for consumption. The government statistician reported that the quantity of beer available fell in 2020 by 1.7 per cent to 293 million litres.