The Sunday Mail
The mid-week announcement by Delta Beverages of a beer price reduction (quite a rarity that beer prices go down in this country) will be greeted with glee by imbibers with thirsty throats.
In its financial results for 2012, Delta Beverages said Zimbabwe consumed 198,1 million hectolitres of lager and 335,4 million hectolitres of opaque (millet) beer. This is akin to drinking 198,1 billion litres of clear beer and 335,4 billion litres of masese — which might leave the dear reader wondering if we have become a nation of drunkards.
But the ‘drunk’ truth is that the latest reduction of prices might have something to do with subdued volumes. In this year’s financials, Delta did not give any figures as to how imbibers had fared in the trading year, preferring instead to inform the nation that it had become 12 percent less drunk. Given those figures, the recent reduction might be seen as an intervention, or rather an incentive, for the nation to drink more.
The new price regimes, which will affect mainly the quarts range, will see most prices coming down by 5 cents, with the Eagle brand being the biggest casualty, losing 20 cents off its recommended retail price, to trade at a dollar.
Comparatively, in South Africa the dumpy (the equivalent of our pint) trades at R9 with the quart trading at R13. In Malawi, the Carlsberg brand, of which Malawi boasts of a large Carlsberg brewery, trades for K350 in most bottles. The average price for the Castle Lite and Golden Pilsener brands is K500. The kwacha trades at $1:K415, against the United States dollar. The high-end Heineken sells for K700.
When compared to other countries in the sub-region, Zimbabwe comes third in terms of beer consumption per capita per year. Expectedly, South Africa leads, probably as a result of its population which is about four times that of Zimbabwe. Botswana, however, with a population probably a fifth of Zimbabwe’s, comes in second with Zimbabwe on third, Zambia on fourth and Malawi on fifth position. The data was collated by the World Health Organisation by calculating alcohol use by persons 15 years of age or older from 2010 and was published this year. Beer is weighted as 4–5 percent, wine as 11–16 percent and spirits as 40 percent of pure alcohol content.
