UN honours Heineken

As we never tire of repeating at development cooperation meetings, the brewing and beverage industry is Africa’s major private sector employer. That’s why it is only fair that Heineken was among the ten organisations to receive the 2010 WBD award. According to the judging panel, Heineken impressed by demonstrating that there is a clear link between sound business practices and the Millennium Development Goals.

The award was given to Heineken for a project the brewer initiated in Sierra Leone, a West African country of some 6 million people, which emerged from a decade of civil war in 2002, with the help of Britain, the former colonial power, and a large United Nations peacekeeping mission. In June 2009, the UN said that despite some impressive gains in rebuilding since the end of the civil war, efforts to consolidate peace and prosperity in the country remained fragile.

Heineken’s local sourcing project in Sierra Leone is part of the company’s Africa-wide strategy to procure at least 60 percent of its raw materials locally, which would not only drive down costs for imported malt, but help stimulate local entrepreneurship, create new jobs for the local communities and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes significantly.

Since 1988, Heineken has been developing its sorghum brewing technology and know-how. The award-winning project in Sierra Leone was established in 2005 with the goal of developing a sustainable local supply chain for Sierra Leone Brewery (SLBL), which is majority owned by Heineken and Guinness International.

Heineken says that locally produced sorghum shortens the supply chain and diversification of raw material sourcing, both beneficial to local farmers and SLBL. Reducing grain imports leads to savings of scarce foreign currency for Sierra Leone. More importantly however, hundreds of local smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone now have a cash income. This all led to the creation of solid relationships and trust between all stakeholders in the new supply chain.