JAPAN: Sapporo, Asahi ponder beer price hike - report

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 30 October 2007

Two Japanese brewers are considering hiking up beer prices due to rising raw material costs, according to local press.

A Nikkei report cited Sapporo Breweries president Masaru Fukunaga, from a news conference last Thursday (25 October) as saying: "We have to make efforts to cut costs, but we have already started considering price increases. The impact of high material costs will become severe in the next year and onward."

On the same day, Asahi Breweries president Hitoshi Ogita reportedly hinted it may also be forced to consider price increases, according to the Japanese news service.

During a news conference in Tokyo, Ogita was quoted as having said: "We will have no choice but to consider price hikes if material and ingredient costs climb higher than they did this year."