KOMBUCHA, “Keeping our Manufacturers from Being Unfairly Taxed while Championing Health Act”, is a bill that was introduced to protect kombucha manufacturers from excise tax on their products containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol. The bill proposed by U.S senator Ron Wyden would raise the limit on alcohol by volume for kombucha to 1.25 percent. If Kombucha is not kept cold when it is created, the alcohol level can potentially surpass the threshold. The director of project management at Kombucha Brewers argues that one would have to drink about five to ten kombucha servings to equal the amount of alcohol content in one beer. Kombucha manufacturers claim that the excise taxes currently imposed on them are hindering their ability to create more jobs and affect the industry’s growth rate. The industry has great potential as it has health and wellness attributes that attract many of today’s consumers. Reports by Grand View Research Inc. predict that kombucha will become a $5.45 billion industry globally by the year 2025.
Source: The Bulletin April 2019