Nov 18, 2015 Ethiopia’s Dashen Brewery recently launched a new plant in Debre Birhan as part of its plans to expand beer production in the country.
While officially opening the new plant, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn said:
“DUET, VASARI AND TIRET have shown that companies from the United Kingdom and Ethiopia can jointly venture for mutual prosperity and this best practice has to be scaled up.”
Ethiopia currently boasts of a growing middle class, which serves as a major incentive for foreign investors. Commenting on the business potentials in the country, Tadesse Kassa, CEO of the TIRET group said:
“As often said, beer is the drink of the middle class and we have a growing middle class in our country as the income of our people is growing. From this perspective the beer industry can generate huge revenue in country. That is why we are getting a lot of new beer factories. Even with our new factory manufacturing 2 million hectolitres, we still cannot satisfy the demand. Therefore the market is still open. On top of that there is a pressure from the government that all beer factories should export 20 percent of their product to foreign markets. So, if we start to export 20 percent of our products there will be even more space in the market to fill,”
Ethiopia has rapidly opened up the beverage sector, however it is moving cautiously in other industries such as Telecoms and banking.
The new brewery has promised to create several hundred new jobs in the area, as well as indirect employment through its supply chain such as local barley growing farmers.
Mekebib Alemu, deputy CEO of Dashen beer said:
“We are working hard to become number one. If something happens and just one beer factory is left in Ethiopia, we are saying Dashen should be that persistent one. After few years there will be surplus products more than the market can carry. Therefore, the competition will be about quality, customer care, service delivery and good promotions. Only those who do their best at these attributes will survive. Otherwise, by the year 2018 the beer market will be saturated and supply will surpass demand,”