Breweries lose hundreds of millions of crowns every month due to closed gastronomic operations. Even with the optimistic scenario, pubs and restaurants will not open until the end of November, so they will be closed for at least a third of this year, said Martina Ferencová, executive director of the Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses. The union therefore began negotiations with the Ministry of Agriculture on possible compensation. He also wants to start discussing changes with the Ministry of Finance so that breweries may not have to pay excise duty on liquidated beer next year.
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“The Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses understands the need to take strict measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic, but the ongoing closure of restaurants is a major blow not only to the restaurants themselves, but also to breweries that lose hundreds of millions of crowns a month,” Ferencová added.
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According to her, the current conditions of compensation programs are set so that a large part of breweries cannot reach them. The ministry announced on Monday that the Agricovid program, in which the state will redistribute up to three billion crowns to food producers and farmers affected by coronavirus, has yet to be approved by the European Commission. Enterprises that fell by a quarter between the beginning of March and the end of November will be entitled to the subsidy by a quarter. According to the office, the maximum rate is CZK 200,000 per company and up to CZK 20,000 per employee; for food producers, the maximum subsidy will be EUR 800,000, ie approximately CZK 21.6 million.
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For example, breweries from the Gourmet Invest group now achieve ten to 15 percent of average daily sales through window sales and deliveries. “Most of the consumption in our operations took place in the afternoon and evening, now about 60 percent of orders during lunch are until 14:00 and the remaining 40 percent between 16:00 and 18:00,” added Miroslav Harašta, director of the Znojmo Brewery and Jarošov Brewery. According to him, the consumption of clients is more open to variety when ordering beer in bottles than when consuming in restaurants where bottom-fermented lagers predominate.
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The association, together with the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, has previously asked the state to help restaurants because of coronavirus. There are five long-term and four short-term measures in the proposed National Gastronomy Program. It is necessary to extend the Antivirus program, legalize tips and reduce VAT to catering services to five percent by the end of next year.
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