Beer firm to support farmers

Tusker beer, a product of East African Breweries Limited. Data from regional brewer East African Breweries (EABL) shows that bars could be making 10 times the recommended earnings from certain bottled brands. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

ALEXANDER SANGA in Mwanza

TANZANIA Breweries Limited will invest 27bn/- to support farmers to boost production of local raw materials for beer, wine and spirits making.

TBL Managing Director, Robert Jarrin said here last week that the funds would help barley, grapes, sorghum and maize farmers to increase their production of local materials for the beer making company which will in turn boost their growth.

He said the farmers would be provided with seeds, extension services as well as facilitating them with access to credits from a number of banks including CRDB, National Microfinance Bank (NMB) and Bank of Africa (BOA).

He said his company would continue to support the development of the commercial farming of barley, sorghum and maize crops in the country. “Barley farming is a source of livehood for more than 3,000 farmers in rural Tanzania.

Barley is converted into malt, a key ingredient in the manufacturing of beer which is enough to met most of TBL group’s requirement for its Arusha and Mwanza breweries,” he said.

Mr Jarrin also said his company contributed 384bn/- to the government’s revenue in 2015. “TBL group is the country’s largest taxpayer having contributed 2.3tri/- in taxes to the government over the past ten years.

Our group contribution to the development of Tanzania through the collection and payment of tax continues to be recognized by various stakeholders in the country through the collection and payment of tax accolades accorded to us by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) over the past four consecutive years”, he said.

The company has large scales manufacturing plants in Tanzania in Mwanza, Mbeya, Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam which rank among the best in SAB Miller’s African operations. TBL Mwanza and Mbeya brewing plants feature among the top 10 and 15 breweries in the world.

Mr Jarrin also said the company’s beer business has a 78 per cent market share of the formal beer market which is primarily driven by Safari, Kilimanjaro, Ndovu, Castle Lager and Castle lite brands while company’s leading spirits and wines are Konyagi, Valeur and Dodoma wine.

On the other hand, Mr Jarrin said the beer business has stagnated due to affordability as majority of Tanzanians earn low income. The business has also stagnated due to prevalence of a large informal alcohol market and lack of incentives that encourage local production of key raw materials such as malt.