CDM LAUNCHES CASSAVA BEER

CDM (Cervejas de Mocambique – Beers of Mozambique), the local subsidiary of the world’s second largest brewing company, SABMiller, announced on Monday the launch of Impala, a beer based on cassava, rather than on malt.The official launch is taking place at Namigonha in Ribaue district in the northern province of Nampula.According to a CDM statement received  Impala beer will be brewed commercially, using 70 per cent cassava, at the CDM factory in Nampula city. CDM is confident of its new product, which it says results from years of research and development to overcome the challenges of brewing beer from cassava.The new beer will initially be sold in the various districts of the province of Nampula at an affordable price of 25 meticais (about 92 US cents) for a 550ml bottle. (The price for the same sized bottle of malt-based beers, even in cheap bars, is not less than 35 meticais).Mozambican farmers produce more than enough cassava than is required for domestic consumption. A source of starch, it begins to degrade almost immediately after harvest and its high water content makes it inconvenient to transport over long distances.In order to preserve its high starch content, CDM has entered into a partnership with DADTCO, a Dutch organization for trade and agricultural development. The latter has spearheaded an innovative solution in the form of mobile processing units which travel to the cassava growing regions.The Chairperson of the CDM Board of Directors, Isidora Faztudo, cited in the release, said “It has always been our ambition to develop a beer of high quality at an affordable price to meet the local demand”.The production of beer from cassava opens the opportunity for Nampula farmers to increase their production cassava, knowing that there is a guaranteed buyer. Impala production will require 40,000 tonnes of cassava annually and will create employment for over 1,500 subsistence farmers. DADTCO will manage the cassava production value chain and agricultural extension services will be provided by IFDC, a public international organization that supports farmers across Africa.To encourage the use of cassava in brewing, the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, amended the tax code earlier this month, so that beers made from roots and tubers will pay a lower rate of tax than malt-based beers. While malt-based beers pay a 40 per cent tax rate, the rate for Impala will be only 10 per cent.This is the second time a beer named Impala has been produced in Mozambique. In the early 1980s, a malt-based Impala was brewed at what is now the CDM brewery in Maputo. It was a lower alcohol alternative to the established Mozambican beers (2M and Laurentina), but it was clearly less popular, since it disappeared from the market a couple of decades ago.