Nile Breweries to get sh32b malt plant

Dec 16, 2009

NAIROBI - Global brewer SABMiller is to invest $16m (about sh32b) in a malting plant in Uganda next year to process locally-grown barley, its managing director, Mark Bowman, said Tuesday.

NAIROBI - Global brewer SABMiller is to invest $16m (about sh32b) in a malting plant in Uganda next year to process locally-grown barley, its managing director, Mark Bowman, said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.

“This significant investment comes as a direct result of the success we have had in Uganda of the local raw material sourcing strategy which we are seeking to introduce across all of our African operations,” he noted.

The investment will be channelled through the group’s local subsidiary Nile Breweries at its existing site in Jinja.

Africa’s beer market has held up in the face of the global economic downturn, prompting brewers to keep investing and to craft strategies aimed at protecting and growing their market share.

Tactics include substituting local barley, sorghum and cassava for imported barley to make European-style lager cheaply.

It targets the low-cost segment of the market, which the company reckons could be worth $3b a year.

SABMiller’s use of locally-sourced raw materials in Uganda began in 2002 when Nile Breweries launched two beers brewed using sorghum grown by smallholder farmers.

Purchases of sorghum jumped to 12,000 tonnes in 2007, up from 1,600 tonnes in 2003, the company said.

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