Namibia: Namibia Breweries Limited keen on growing and using its own barley

Namibia Breweries Limited has taken the task upon itself to grow and use local barley, a key input in its manufacturing process. This will also make Namibia Breweries Limited the first and only brewer in Africa to grow and use its own barley, Southern Times Africa reported on February 15.

The initiative recently gave birth to a new beer mark, King Lager, which Namibia Breweries has stated is born of the land. Inside Southern Africa recently caught up with Ohlthaver and List Group spokesperson, Roux-Che Locke on the local barley initiative.

“Namibia Breweries is committed to the O&L Group’s purpose of Creating a Future, Enhancing Life. As such, we have always tried to find ways to add value in Namibia and create employment for our people. One of the avenues to create jobs was to pioneer the cultivation of barley in Namibia. Given the success of the trials to grow barley in Namibia for commercial use and having proved that barley could be grown in Namibia, it was only fitting that Namibia Breweries created a new premium quality beer that is brewed with home-grown Namibian barley. To this end, King Lager was born,” said Locke.

Project Manager Martin Krafft said that, “the idea is that NBL buys from approved suppliers and supports the farmers with the knowledge gained during the trials.

This year NBL has planted 30 ha of barley at Otavifontein to continue collecting data, information and experience which we can use to support farmers and to optimize the program for all participants. It is important to note that all participants will need to make the Namibian barley program a success, due to the fact that Namibia as a whole is in competition with other members of SADC and the rest of world.”

Following extensive barley trials to explore the establishment of a local barley industry, Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) entered into a smart partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry as well as AgriBusDev, to grow barley at the Green schemes in Namibia as of this year.

Wessie van der Westhuizen, NBL’s managing director said that the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with government to avail 500 hectares of land under the Green Schemes for the production of barley is a major milestone. “Following extensive trials in at least four regions of the country, we have proven that barley can be grown on Namibian soil for commercial purposes, and we are now ready to develop large-scale barley,” said Van der Westhuizen.

Plans to grow barley extend as far back as 2011 when Namibia Breweries together with the University of Namibia and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry jointly studied the feasibility of the viability of locally grown barley and its extended use for the brewing of its “Reinheitsgebot” brewed beer beverages. Explaining the rationale at the time was former Namibia Breweries Limited Managing Director, Desmond van Jaarsveld, “Namibia Breweries Limited would aim to produce as much of the brewery’s production inputs as possible, in our home market Namibia. However, as we produce pure Reinheitsgebot beer, in terms of ingredients, we are restricted to the use of only exceptionally high quality malted barley, hops and water. Neither malted barley nor hops are available in Namibia and are therefore secured from various suppliers in Europe. Our climate conditions do not allow for the growth of hops in Namibia.

However, with the new developments in malted technology as well as the developments of new barley varieties, we are keen to establish whether in future this ingredient could be grown in Namibia.”

The initiative also gave birth to a new beer brand, notably called King Lager. Explaining the motivation behind the launch of the beer brand, its Managing Director van der Westhuizen said at the time, “this initiative, will create a local barley supply chain in Namibia that benefits each member of the chain, as well as the government and the community as a whole resulting in the creation of many job opportunities thereby contributing to boosting the country’s economy”, NBL MD Wessie van der Westhuizen, said.

“For Namibia Breweries Limited it eventually just made sense that a new local brand be embarked upon to bring more to our consumers and the nation at large, and in celebration of our own grown barley.” Namibia Breweries Limited has noted that since commencing its barley trials five years ago, the company has thus far invested more than N$5 million in the barley project, including trial planning, execution, seeds, laboratory and brewing trials, as well as shipment and logistics.

Namibia Breweries Limited currently imports 40 000 tons of malted barley per annum, mainly from Europe. NBL aims to harvest at least 12 000 ha of barley per annum over the next ten years.

17 February, 2016