Africa, Mozambique: The Mozambican subsidiary of South African Breweries, Cervejas de Mocambique (CDM), which holds a monopoly on brewing in the country, has denied facing any problems in producing its popular brands of beer, 2M and Laurentina, Angola Press revealed on January 4.

Retailers and consumers have complained bitterly over the past few days at an apparent shortage of beer on the market. Since the CDM brewery in Maputo is the only one in the south of the country, it was imagined that there must be some production problems. Suspicions were heightened when the management refused to give interviews or allow journalists on the premises. Security guards said they had ben given instructions to keep journalists out.

But on Thursday CDM relented, and one of the company`s directors, Jose Moreira, spoke to reporters on Thursday. He admitted it was "a mistake" not to speak to the press earlier. According to the report in Friday`s issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", he flatly denied that CDM has any production problems. Over the festive season, production has never stopped, except on Xmas Day itself, he said.

He blamed the beer shortage on high demand. Among the factors leading to higher beer consumption, Moreira suggested, were the high temperatures in southern Mozambique over the past week, and the fact that many workers have more money in their pockets than normal, given that a good number of employers have already paid out the New Year bonus.

Moreira said that CDM had originally planned to put a million crates of beer on the market in December (which compares with about 970,000 crates produced in December 2003). In fact, by 30 December, production in the month was between 1.2 and 1.4 million crates, he claimed. Last week, distribution was 25 per cent higher than initially planned.

"To our consumers and to the public at large, we would like to say that we are doing everything possible to guarantee the regular distribution of beer", said Moreira. "Our fleet of vehicles is working so that there should be no shortage of beer". He insisted that CDM was distributing its products to all the normal retailers.

One clear possibility is that some retailers are profiteering. They claim to be short of beer in order to hike the prices. Even before the festive season, some retailers were selling a 550 millilitre bottle of 2M for 20,000 meticais (about one US dollar), rather than the recommended price of 17,000.

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