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 Sudan's south finally able to slake its thirst for beerUK-based brewery exploits booze void lef
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Sudan's south finally able to slake its thirst for beerUK-based brewery exploits booze void left by decades of civil war and sharia law
(51)Tweet this (32)Xan Rice in Juba guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 May 2010 16.44 BST Article history
White Bull has been a bestselling lager in Juba, Southern Sudan.
Sometimes, the best taste of freedom is a bitter one. Just ask the men and women of Southern Sudan. For 50 years after colonial rule, a combination of civil war and sharia law prevented them from enjoying a locally produced beer.
Now, as the autonomous region embarks on its final steps to independence, they have White Bull.
The lager was launched last year by the London-listed drinks giant SABMiller, which has built a £32m modern factory in the sweltering southern capital, Juba.
Investing so much in what was the town's first manufacturing facility of any kind may have seemed a major risk. There were questions over the stability of Southern Sudan so soon after the civil war. There was also strong competition from Kenyan and Ugandan brews that had flowed across the border since the conflict with the Islamic-dominated northern government ended in 2005.
But the gamble seems to have paid off – thanks in no small part to patriotism.
Together with Nile Special, another brand produced in the Juba brewery, White Bull has captured two-thirds of the mainstream beer market, selling 2.5m bottles a month, at 70p each.
"There's a huge element of national pride at play here," said Ian Alsworth-Elvey, who runs the company's Southern Sudan operations.
"Even people who drink a different beer will not have anything bad to say about White Bull."
The embrace of a locally made and branded product – cattle are integral to life in Southern Sudan – is perhaps unsurprising.
When peace finally arrived five years ago the region was as undeveloped as any inhabited place on Earth. There were no paved roads, no electricity, no treated water, and no industry.
Everything from soap to bottled water had to be imported. Even the University of Juba, which had been one of the few examples of development in the south before the war, had been relocated to Khartoum.
"When I first came back here in 2005, the whole town was desolate," said Professor Aggrey Abate, the university's vice-chancellor, who is now overseeing its move back south. "We have come a long way."
Initially, foreign investment was small and geared to fast returns, such as the tented "hotels" that sprang up along the Nile in Juba, charging diplomats, oil workers and aid staff $150 (£101) or more a night.
But the beer company executives who first arrived in town in 2006 were thinking much longer term. The absence of infrastructure was a shock, but the strong thirst for beer – even at breakfast time, from the evidence at one local hotel visited recently – helped persuade them.
"We could see the huge potential here," said Alsworth-Elvey. "But it still took some fairly large gonads to go for it."
In fact, an attempt to produce beer commercially in the south had been made before.
After Sudan's first civil war ended in the 1970s, a Belgian company built the White Nile Brewery in Wau. But the Khartoum government never allowed production to begin, and the project was scrapped when sharia law was introduced in 1983 – the same year the second civil war began.
For the makers of White Bull, the main challenge was logistics. All the materials for the factory had to be transported by road from the Kenyan port of Mombasa, 1,540 miles away.
A power plant needed to be built. The only beer ingredient available locally was water from the Nile. And more than 250 Sudanese workers, many of whom had never had a job before, had to be trained from scratch.
As the factory was rising, the rest of Juba was developing with it. Most of the town now has tarred roads and minibus taxis are ubiquitous. Chinese companies are renovating government ministries that were built by the Yugoslavian government in the 1970s.
Kenyan banks and insurance companies have moved in. Six mobile phone operators vie for customers. But White Bull may be the most recognisable brand.
In Juba and some other southern towns its yellow, green and white livery adorns pubs such as Home and Away, where football fans gather to watch the Premier League.
Closer to the border with north Sudan, in mixed Christian-Muslim towns such as Malakal, it is drunk more furtively by "invisible consumers".
The heavy brown bottles even find their way to Khartoum, where alcohol is forbidden.
Political risk has so far prevented other major international companies from heading to Juba. But Alsworth-Elvey believes that fears of conflict around next year's referendum on independence for Southern Sudan are overstated: "It is our belief that we will not see tanks coming over the ridges again."
He does, however, admit that the company misread the market in one important respect.
The alcohol content in White Bull is 4.2%. "People here would prefer their beer to be a bit stronger," he said.
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JOK BIONG
willeim andrea
Zakaria Joseph
Ahmed Yousif Abu Harira
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست