The commercial brewing of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

only commenced in 1958 and the market is dominated by a single producer, Paradise Beverages (Fiji) Limited. The Fijian word for beer is .

History

There was no alcohol in

until the arrival of outsiders. Before this, yaqona (kava) was the traditional ceremonial drink used by men. In Fiji alcohol in various forms was introduced in the early 19th century by explorers, traders, whalers and to some extent missionaries. Missionaries of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

and the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

arrived in the 1830s. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, American soldiers introduced brewing and distillation with which the Fijian soldiers became familiarised. Fiji became a British colony in 1874 and achieved independence in 1970. As in the other Pacific Islands, a permit system was set up to control alcohol accessibility. In Fiji, the permit system did not apply to Europeans, but only to Fijians and Indians. No permits were issued to women, either Indian or Fijian, or to young men (under the 25 years in the case of Indians, and under 30 years in the case of Fijians). In 1958 restrictions on access to beer were removed for adult males of any race and four years later, in 1962, adult males were allowed access to any alcoholic beverage. The restriction on the sale of alcohol to females was repealed in 1969. In 2019 the average consumption of alcohol

per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...

(15+) was , when adjusted to include tourist consumption, with beer being 70% of all alcohol consumed. Since 2014, consumption of beer per capita in Fiji has fallen by 0.9% on an annual basis. The peak consumption of occurring in 1990. In 2019, the country was number 95 amongst all other countries in beer consumption per capita. Since 2014 the amount of domestic beer produced has steadily increased 5.6% annually. In 2017 Fiji was ranked number 123 in domestic beer production in the world, producing . Fiji exported

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$302,620 worth of beer in 2019, a decrease of 2% from year to year, having peaked in 2017 at US$485,926. It was ranked at 116 in the world. The importation of foreign beer has remained stable since 2014 at , and the country sits at number 135 in the world. In Fiji

homebrewing Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...

is becoming increasingly popular. The home-brews are generally stronger than the commercially produced beer, sometimes containing up to three times the alcohol content of commercially produced beer, and because they are made in secret little was known about how much home-brew is being produced in the country. In 1995 the unrecorded consumption of alcohol in Fiji was estimated to be of pure alcohol per capita (15+).

Microbreweries

The country's first

microbrewery Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

, Island Brewing Company, commenced operations in 2009. In March 2014 it was acquired by

Paradise Beverages Paradise Beverages (Fiji) Limited is a Fijian alcoholic beverage producer based in Suva. It is a publicly listed company on the South Pacific Stock Exchange. Paradise Beverages was established in August 1957 in Suva, following a partnership betw ...

. Currently the country's only independent brewery is Kailoma Brewing Company, which was established in 2017. Their brewery currently produces three beers: Mokusiga Pacific Lager; Cloudies Summer Ale; and Bula Bitter Brew. The current production capacity is per week and their beers are sold throughout Fiji.

External links

Paradise Beverages official website

Kailoma Brewing Company official website

References

{{Beers of the world Economy of Fiji

History

Microbreweries

See also

External links

References