r i t%^Man, a firm believer
in the continent's ability to deliver profits to
international firms.
NOVEMBER 2005
Harvesting sorghum
between three and four times larger than the clear beer market,
representing another huge potential market.
In Rwanda, the "country of a thousand hills," more than 90% of the
population lives in the countryside, often subsisting on family plots less
than a hectare in size, according to the ISS. In the east of the country the
views of the intensively farmed valleys and hillsides are often spectacularly
idyllic: a seemingly endless range of rolling hills, almost all covered in an
expansive patchwork of fields—even those in the steep foothills of the
Virunga Mountains, which include a series of extinct volcanoes.
As part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives, Heineken
works extensively with small-scale farmers in Rwanda. Because the land
tenure system allows only small family land holdings, farmers are
i encouraged to re-group into more viable farming cooperatives. The
cooperatives are supported to cultivate high - yield sorghum varieties used
as adjunct in the brewing process. "We meet regularly with the farmers to
discuss progress. We supply them with good quality seedlings, inputs,
fertilisers and also give them agric extension services. Then we guarantee
purchase of their harvest at a good price. That way, we help to stimulate
the country's rural economies beyond making and selling of beer and soft
drinks," says Chaurasia.
The widespread economic challenges facing the country were the
subject of an interesting discussion over dinner at another fashionable
Kigali nightspot, the Indian Khazana restaurant, which is itself a branch of a
restaurant owned by a Ugandan Asian family from Kampala, the capital city
of Uganda, and another sign of growing foreign investment. Dinesh Sonak,
the young management trainee, mentioned that friends, back in the
Netherlands, sometimes asked him why he was helping to sell beer in a
poor country. The question sometimes disturbs him: "What people ought to
realise," explained Victor Famuyibo, Fieineken's Corporate Social
Responsibility Manager for Africa, "is that poor people also have a social life."
Tha comment encapsulates much of the debate about Africa, and indeed
about Fieineken's increasing involvement in the continent. For indeed, in the
fast-developing environment of Africa, a person who can only afford a few
beers a month now may soon be able to afford a few more, during a night
out with friends. And it doesn't stop there. The company's local brands
already enjoy strong customer loyalty. As Africa develops a stronger middle
class the possibilities for premium brands look very strong too.
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