Beer companies get a buzz in Vietnam

TUOITRE

Vietnamese are drinking billions of liters of beer every year, according to statistics from domestic and foreign breweries and importers.

Dutch beer company Heineken said it sold 200 million liters in Vietnam last year, making the country the third largest out of the 170 markets worldwide behind the US and France.

Vietnam was set to overtake France to become the second biggest market by 2012, and could reach top spot by 2015, it said.

The Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (SABECO), a domestic brewery, sold 1.088 billion liters of its Saigon and other beers in 2010.

It targets sales of 1.3 billion liters this year and 2 billion liters in 2015.

Beer consumption has kept rising in Vietnam regardless of the state of its economy, a SABECO official said.

Many breweries are being set up or upgraded and more and more foreign beers are being imported.

The Saigon Port customs said imports rose by half over 2009 to more than 1.66 million bottles and cans of liquor, beer, and wine.

This year SABECO has opened three new plants and upgraded two existing ones.

Vietnam Brewery Limited, which makes BGI, Bivina, and other beers, has upgraded the capacity of its factory in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 from 280 million liters a year to 420 million liters. 

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