Fifteen dollars for a piece of cheese

The latest Cost of Living Survey by human resources consultancy ECA International says that decent Luanda apartments with water and electricity go for upwards of USD 15,000 (EUR 10,700) a month, a basic meal can top USD 100 easily and imported European cheese sells for over 15 dollars a piece.

How Angolans make ends meet is beyond anybody’s guess as two thirds of the population live on less than two dollars a day. Probably the old saying also holds true in Luanda that “where there’s a will there’s a way... and a beer.”

In any case, SABMiller remain positive about the potential of the Angolan beer market which represents about 5 million hl beer. Beer consumption, excluding sorghum beer, is currently 32 litres per capita.

Angola’s economy has held up well during the global economic crisis, SABMiller say. In July Angolan government officials said that the economy would continue to grow in 2009, yet without specifying the percentage expected.

SABMiller’s new facility, expected to be complete in October, will boost the number of SABMiller and its joint venture partner Empresa Cervejas de N’gola’s breweries and bottling plants in Angola to five.

SABMiller began their investment in Angola in 1997 by managing Empresa Cervejas de N’gola in Lubango, a city in the south of Angola, which recently expanded its output capacity to 820,000 hl.

In March this year, SABMiller announced they would produce a cassava-based beer at their brewery in Luanda, which would retail at between 50 percent and 60 percent of the price of standard lager. That should prove competitive with the informal market where hooch is priced at between 20 percent and 70 pecent of mainstream beer.

Now we know what most Angolans drink.