Iran War Claims New Victims as Beverage Industry Faces Collapse
The impact of the Iran war is widening and now beginning to strike the industrial sector, including the beverage industry in India. Global producers are warning of potential price surges and major supply disruptions due to the energy crisis in the Middle East.
Industry players are feeling direct pressure. The Brewers Association of India (BAI), which represents global companies such as Heineken, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Carlsberg, has reported a significant surge in production costs.
Glass bottle prices have risen by around 20%, while cardboard prices have doubled. Increases have also occurred in various other packaging materials such as labels and tape.
The Director General of BAI, Vinod Giri, stated that the industry is currently under heavy pressure and is seeking price increases. “We are requesting price hikes in the range of 12-15%,” he said, quoted on Thursday (26/3/2026).
He added that the surge in production costs is making several operational activities unsustainable.
From the upstream side, the pressure is no less significant. The CEO of Fine Art Glass Works, Nitin Agarwal, revealed that his company has been forced to cut production due to a shortage of gas supply. “We have reduced production by 40% and raised prices by 17-18%,” he said.
This situation directly affects the supply of glass bottles to various industries, from alcoholic beverages to other consumer products.
The situation threatens India’s beer industry, valued at around US$7.8 billion or the equivalent of Rp124.8 trillion in 2024, and is expected to continue growing in the coming years. However, price increases are not easily implemented because the alcohol sector in India is tightly regulated and requires approval from state governments.
Industry associations warn that producers may struggle to maintain supplies in regions that do not allow price adjustments, thereby increasing the risk of product shortages in the market.
The crisis impact is now spilling over to other sectors. India’s packaged drinking water market, valued at around US$5 billion or Rp80 trillion, is also affected, with several producers having raised prices by around 11% due to surges in raw material costs such as plastic bottles and caps.
Gas shortages are the main trigger for this pressure. Disruptions in exports from Qatar, which supplies around 40% of India’s gas, are driving up production costs, particularly for glass bottle manufacturing. At the same time, delays in aluminium shipments for cans are further exacerbating the supply chain.
India itself is in a vulnerable position as the world’s fourth-largest importer of natural gas. High dependence on energy supplies from the Middle East makes domestic industries highly sensitive to geopolitical turmoil.