By: Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
The country’s alcohol brewing sector has recorded dismal and gloomy production figures for the past seven months of 2023.
The Alcoholic Beverage Production Index, which tracks beer production in the country, has not reached 100 for the past 7 months of the year.
By the end of July, the index recorded a 22.6% monthly decline and a 46.2% annual decline.
The production index is compiled by Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) and it tracks the hectolitres of alcoholic beverages produced in the country for local consumption and exporting.
According to NSA’s Beverages Sectoral Report, the alcohol beverage sector index has been below 90 for most of the months during the period under consideration.
The Index only breached 90, twice to 93 in March and April.
The beverage industry is one of the biggest sub-sectors of the country’s manufacturing sector, together with beef and food processing.
Furthermore, apart from South Africa which takes up a chunk of Namibia’s beer production, beer is one of the country’s products that has penetrated the African market, like Botswana, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Despite the diversified market of exports complemented by local consumption, the country’s beer production for 2023 has been inconsistent and drastically falling for some months in the seven months.
The highest volume of alcoholic beverages produced for this year so far was 158,544 hectolitres in April. However, compared to 2022, this is quite low as in the same month last year 194,962 hectolitres were produced.
The only other month that recorded a high volume is March with 157,422 hectolitres of alcoholic beverages produced.
Beyond those months, production has dwindled to below 145,000 hectolitres.
The alcoholic beverage production decline got worse at the end of July 2023, reaching 106,261 hectolitres, according to the data.
This is a recorded monthly decline of 22.6% in July 2023 compared to an increase of 1.6% recorded a month earlier.
Additionally, the index declined by 46.2% on an annual basis, the NSA indicated.
Despite Namibia’s alcoholic beverages production, the country still imports a significant volume of alcohol, mostly from South Africa.
However, an observation in the seven month period shows that Namibia has gone as far as Taiwan, Germany, the United States of America, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Portugal to import alcoholic beverages.
Alcoholic beverage production is the total of alcoholic beverages produced by Namibia Breweries and ABInBev Namibia. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
