Empty soda, beer bottles stuck in southern Sudan
THE smell of hefty profits – a bottle of soda or beer costs four times the cost in Uganda -- is pulling traders, and lots of bottled drinks to Juba. But getting the bottles out of the Southern Sudan capital is proving slower.
By Badru Mulumba
in Juba
THE smell of hefty profits – a bottle of soda or beer costs four times the cost in Uganda -- is pulling traders, and lots of bottled drinks to Juba. But getting the bottles out of the Southern Sudan capital is proving slower.
Last January, Executive Joint, the largest club in Yei, warned its patrons it would close the bar. The patrons were walking off with the bottles.
Last August, Moses Ssendiga left 800 crates at a store in Juba. He would pick them a week later.
Three months later, the crates still lie in the store.
Last September, True Africa Hotel opened with 20 crates of beer. Losing bottles was not part of the worries of the owners. Now, it’s.
“There are a lot of bottles lying around,†Ashraf Musoke, a truck driver, said after a futile search for empty bottles to drive back to Kampala. “Nobody is sending them back.â€
Last week, Musoke drove a truckload of beer and soda to Juba. But his truck was returning to Kampala empty because there were no bottles to ferry. Musoke charges sh 2,500 per crate to Kampala.
Chol Makhur, a beer store owner whose monthly turnover is 1,000 crates, said prices of returning empties to Kampala varied.
Makhur pays up to sh2.4m to get 250 crates to Juba. But he pays as low as sh400,000 to get empty crates to Uganda.
“It depends on you and the driver,†Makhur said.
But it’s the slow rate at which empty bottles are transported back to Kampala that explains the low cost at which bottles are transported back to Kampala compared to transport to Juba.When Sendiga left the crates at the store in August, he deposited sh50,000, Simon Taban, owner of the store said.
Sendiga promised to pick them within a week.
It costs sh1,000 per crate per month to keep them in a store. For 800 crates, Sendiga would pay sh800,000. The total price comes to sh2.4m for three months, and sh3.2m for four months.
Taban said he would ask Sendiga for sh2.4m if he had returned at the beginning of the month.
“If he doesn’t come back, I will sell the bottles to recover the money,†Taban said. “I am thinking: I want to build another store, and I would remove these things.†Traders deposit an average of sh200 per 300ml bottle of soft drink,and sh1,000 per bottle of beer.
For 800 crates, there are 24,000 empty bottles of beer.
They could fetch up to sh24m on the open market.
Why a trader would abandon bottles in a store is a puzzle that Taban lives with everyday.
If, however, Sendiga is merely keeping the bottles in the store, and still intends to reclaim them, it would not be puzzling.
At least not to Philip Ichile, the managing accountant of Bros and Company, one of the largest hotels in town.
Traders are forced to keep empties for long because the brewing companies demand for them before any supplies. It doesn’t matter how soon the hoteliers and traders plan to shop for the drinks.
“There is a condition,†Ichile said. “If you get new stock minus the empties, the cost is too high.â€
Some businesses, however, keep the bottles even after they have run out of business.
“Some people keep them because they want to keep them,†Ichile said. “You may run out of money, but hope to restart business some day.†But some pubs and traders are not merely hoarding empty bottles: they have lost them.
When True Africa Hotel decides to restock, Tom Mbuthi, the manager, is sure to come up short on bottles.
The pub started out with 20 crates of beer, before it added another 70 crates, when it opened two months ago. “A drunkard goes with the bottle to the car; how do you stop him,â€he asked.
said. “Others walk away openly, defiantly, past the security man.â€
Most bottles are lost on Saturday nights, when the hotel has a live band, which attracts the Juba lot.
Another pub, Executive Joint in Yei, threatened to close the pub in January.
“The pub was losing money,†said Ali Sururu, who patronised the pub.
“People would just sneak off with the bottles.â€
But Bros and Company has no problem with the theft of bottles: high ranking military officials patronise the hotel, said one patron.
The military enforce army style discipline.
For instance, said the patron, a pub goer who tried to cause chaos, once told to stand while saluting until the pub closed in the morning.
in Juba
THE smell of hefty profits – a bottle of soda or beer costs four times the cost in Uganda -- is pulling traders, and lots of bottled drinks to Juba. But getting the bottles out of the Southern Sudan capital is proving slower.
Last January, Executive Joint, the largest club in Yei, warned its patrons it would close the bar. The patrons were walking off with the bottles.
Last August, Moses Ssendiga left 800 crates at a store in Juba. He would pick them a week later.
Three months later, the crates still lie in the store.
Last September, True Africa Hotel opened with 20 crates of beer. Losing bottles was not part of the worries of the owners. Now, it’s.
“There are a lot of bottles lying around,†Ashraf Musoke, a truck driver, said after a futile search for empty bottles to drive back to Kampala. “Nobody is sending them back.â€
Last week, Musoke drove a truckload of beer and soda to Juba. But his truck was returning to Kampala empty because there were no bottles to ferry. Musoke charges sh 2,500 per crate to Kampala.
Chol Makhur, a beer store owner whose monthly turnover is 1,000 crates, said prices of returning empties to Kampala varied.
Makhur pays up to sh2.4m to get 250 crates to Juba. But he pays as low as sh400,000 to get empty crates to Uganda.
“It depends on you and the driver,†Makhur said.
But it’s the slow rate at which empty bottles are transported back to Kampala that explains the low cost at which bottles are transported back to Kampala compared to transport to Juba.When Sendiga left the crates at the store in August, he deposited sh50,000, Simon Taban, owner of the store said.
Sendiga promised to pick them within a week.
It costs sh1,000 per crate per month to keep them in a store. For 800 crates, Sendiga would pay sh800,000. The total price comes to sh2.4m for three months, and sh3.2m for four months.
Taban said he would ask Sendiga for sh2.4m if he had returned at the beginning of the month.
“If he doesn’t come back, I will sell the bottles to recover the money,†Taban said. “I am thinking: I want to build another store, and I would remove these things.†Traders deposit an average of sh200 per 300ml bottle of soft drink,and sh1,000 per bottle of beer.
For 800 crates, there are 24,000 empty bottles of beer.
They could fetch up to sh24m on the open market.
Why a trader would abandon bottles in a store is a puzzle that Taban lives with everyday.
If, however, Sendiga is merely keeping the bottles in the store, and still intends to reclaim them, it would not be puzzling.
At least not to Philip Ichile, the managing accountant of Bros and Company, one of the largest hotels in town.
Traders are forced to keep empties for long because the brewing companies demand for them before any supplies. It doesn’t matter how soon the hoteliers and traders plan to shop for the drinks.
“There is a condition,†Ichile said. “If you get new stock minus the empties, the cost is too high.â€
Some businesses, however, keep the bottles even after they have run out of business.
“Some people keep them because they want to keep them,†Ichile said. “You may run out of money, but hope to restart business some day.†But some pubs and traders are not merely hoarding empty bottles: they have lost them.
When True Africa Hotel decides to restock, Tom Mbuthi, the manager, is sure to come up short on bottles.
The pub started out with 20 crates of beer, before it added another 70 crates, when it opened two months ago. “A drunkard goes with the bottle to the car; how do you stop him,â€he asked.
said. “Others walk away openly, defiantly, past the security man.â€
Most bottles are lost on Saturday nights, when the hotel has a live band, which attracts the Juba lot.
Another pub, Executive Joint in Yei, threatened to close the pub in January.
“The pub was losing money,†said Ali Sururu, who patronised the pub.
“People would just sneak off with the bottles.â€
But Bros and Company has no problem with the theft of bottles: high ranking military officials patronise the hotel, said one patron.
The military enforce army style discipline.
For instance, said the patron, a pub goer who tried to cause chaos, once told to stand while saluting until the pub closed in the morning.