Mozambique: AB InBev’s Cervejas de Mocambique launches construction of new brewery
Cervejas de Mocambique, CDM or Beers of Mozambique, has launched the construction of a more than 2 million hectoliter a year brewery at the cost of $180 million in the country’s Marracuene district, about 30 kilometres north of Maputo, Journalducameroun.com reported on December 8.
The Mozambican Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, on Friday, December 7 laid the first stone for the construction of a new brewery.
CDM, which already has three breweries in the country, is the local subsidiary of AB InBev, the world’s leading producer of beer.
The company says that the production at Marracuene will be highly efficient, and aligned ecologically with the most modern international practices and it is set to fend off competition from rival Heineken, which is the middle of building a $100 million brewery in the same area.
CDM’s investment will also help AB InBev keep pace with demand in a market that saw growth over more than 20 percent in the first half of this year.
Ragendra de Sousa said the brewery, in addition to increasing the Mozambican GDP, would create 1,000 jobs during the construction phase.
CDM General Manager Pedro Cruz said the investment provides more modern equipment for beer production.
“This is without doubt the largest investment by CDM and by the beer sector in Mozambique since our foundation in 1995,” he said. CDM was created out of the privatisation that year of colonial era breweries.
The new factory, scheduled to produce its first batch of beers in the first half 2019, would give the world’s second-largest brewer a substantial presence in the southern African country, where annual beer consumption averages 11 litres per person.
The world’s major brewers have turned to emerging markets for growth because consumer spending in Europe is sluggish and the United States offers only limited expansion opportunities.
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