Tanzania: One of the World’s lowest beer consumers

When most Tanzania think of opening a business, one of the priorities is a bar and nyama choma outlet but even that has not helped to put Tanzania on the map of alcohol consumption, Arusha Times reported January 29.
With the myriad of bars and other beer outlets lined up along Tanzania's major highway from Tunduma in in southern Tanzania to Namanga at the Kenya\ Tanzania border, Tanzania is still ranked as one of the lowest beer consumption countries in Africa.

Low consumption of alcohol in Tanzania is thus discouraging brewers from investing more in the country, the Chairman of the Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), Mr Cleopa David Msuya, said last weekend.

The country's former prime minister said statistics indicate that on average, a Tanzanian currently drank only six litres of lager beer a year, as opposed to 12 litres drunk by their Kenyan counterparts.

Mr Msuya said Tanzania's alcohol consumption rate was also the lowest on the continent, but that the trend had changed in recent years compared to the past, and that, his firm envisaged boosting brewery investments in the country.

Speaking before the inauguration of a new 3.5bn/- in Mwanza, Mr Msuya observed that TBL was symbol of privatisation successes in the country. President Jakaya Kikwete officially inaugurated the plant.

TBL was now buying 12,000 tonnes of barley from farmers in Manyara Region, he said, adding that beer distribution in the country had increased compared to the past when its supply was rationed.

The Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Basil Mramba, said privatisation was almost accomplished in the country, mentioning the remaining parastatals as Machine Tools in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania Light Source Manufacturing Company and General Tyre East Africa Limited based in Arusha.