Heineken Starts $100 Million Mozambique Brewery in Africa Push

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Heineken NV, the world’s second-largest brewer, started building a $100 million plant in Mozambique as it seeks to compete with its larger competitor, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, in the southeast African country.

The brewery, to be located in Maputo province, will have a capacity of 800,000 hectoliters and will start production in the first half of 2019, Heineken said in an emailed statement Monday.

The world’s two beer-making giants are expanding in Africa to take advantage of rising household incomes and faster sales-growth rates than in more mature markets. Heineken has units in Nigeria, where it brews the country’s Star lager, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In April, the Amsterdam-based company opened a new brewery in Ivory Coast at a cost of about 150 million euros ($178 million).

AB InBev, which last year bought SABMiller Plc to become the world’s largest beer maker, brews the 2M, Laurentina and Manica brands in Mozambique.

The country’s economy is set to expand by 4.7 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Mozambique, which defaulted on its dollar debt this year, has a population of 29.5 million.