South Africa’s SABMiller, the second largest brewery company in the world by volume, and Vietnam’s top dairy firm Vinamilk formally opened a brewery Monday in Binh Duong Province, Thanhnien News reported March 27.

SABMiller Vietnam Joint Venture’s US$45 million facility, which began operations a few months ago, is situated in My Phuoc II Industrial Zone and has a capacity of 100 million liters per year.

Its first beer was introduced earlier this year under the brand name Zorok. It is set to make others like Peroni, Pilsner UrQuell and Miller. All its products are distributed through Vinamilk’s network.

The listed Vinamilk is the leading producer of dairy products in Vietnam with an overwhelming 75 percent market share of milk and dairy products.

SABMiller was formed in 2002 by the merger of South African Breweries and Miller Brewing and is traded on the London Stock Exchange where it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

The total beer market in Vietnam is estimated to be in excess of 1.5 billion liters a year.

AmBev, the Brazilian unit of global brewing giant InBev, is in talks to buy a small local brewer, Cintra, a leading Brazilian newspaper reported, according to Reuters, March 28.

Citing unnamed sources close to the deal, financial daily Valor Economico said AmBev was in advanced negotiations to buy Cintra's two factories. The deal would not include the Cintra brand name so as to avoid antitrust concerns, Valor said.

AmBev, which commands almost 70 percent of Brazil's beer market, declined to comment.

Cintra, a closely held brewer based in Rio de Janeiro, has been up for sale for about two years. Another family-owned Brazilian brewer, Schincariol, and Portuguese brewing company Sagres have also been widely reported as potential buyers.

An acquisition of Cintra, which Valor said could be worth about $150 million, would help AmBev block Schincariol's attempts to make headway in the key market of Rio de Janeiro.

Though Cintra has just 1.12 percent of the national beer market, its market share in Rio is almost 6 percent, according to market research firm AC Nielsen.

The most important 2006 year’s trends were seen in premium beer segment, with an increase in sales volume, Russian Beer Union announced March 26. “Premium beer market share rose 60% in 2006 and reached 8% of the market while medium sector growth didn’t overpass 5%”, Serghey Kalinin, General Manager of Sarmat Brewing Group said.

The total beer production rose 12.4% in 2006 which is less than in 2005, when the growth constituted 23%. Thus, in 2006 an average Ukrainian consumed 45-50 litres of beer. Market analysts noted an increase of interest in strong beer sector, with 15% increase in consumption.

Market participants expect a price growth for beer. More expensive water, barley and excise-duty increase are the main factors for that. “Already today the barley prices rose 20-30% and could overpass last year index by 80-90%”, Oksana Pirojok, company’s PR commented.

Latvian beer market grew 8.7% in 2006, Russian Beer Union reported March 26. Sizing-up 2006 year’s results, AO Aldaris’ Management noted that company’s sales increase was bigger than the branch average and constituted 11%.

Aldaris’ total beverage sales reached 100.79 mil liters or 14.15 mil liters more than in 2005. The company kept its leader position on the market with 39.4% share. Beer consumption grew from 62 liters in 2005 to 66 liters of beer per capita in 2006. The export rose 31%.

AO Aldaris’ total net turnover constituted 28.4 mil LAT, 25.4% more than in 2005. Net profit constituted 4.7 mil LAT, thanks to growing sales volumes, product portfolio restructuring (premium beers and new products) and expenses’ optimization.

In 2007, the company plans to invest around 2.5 mil LAT and to introduce new product categories. Currently the company is modernizing its bottling-labelling lines as well as loading machines, after having invested 0.5 mil LAT. It would permit to increase line productivity by 25% - to 45 000 bottles per hour or 13 bottles per second.

From 1992, when Baltic Beverages Holding AB became AO Aldaris’ main shareholder, 42 mil Lat have been invested in new technologies and innovations.

The Saigon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corp or Sabeco will sell a 20% stake in August this year, Vietnam Economic Times reported March 26.

The Industry Ministry established an equitization board for Sabeco and is expected to auction shares in August. The equitization plan was approved by Vietnam Prime Minister and Industry Ministry

Under the approval, the state will hold 80% and 20% will be floated on bourse, said Nguyen Quang Minh, director of Sabeco Corporation.

Foreign investors are keen to buy shares in Vietnam beer producers. The Hanoi Beer, Alcohol and Beverage or Habeco will also equitize in 2007

Minh said beer production grows by 10%, but remains at a modest level compared with regional and global markets

Foreign investors see great potential in Vietnam's beer market; however, it will be full of risk, even waste of state-owned capital if lacking state guidance

The South Australian parliament has passed legislation abandoning the single desk system operated solely by ABB Grain Export Ltd which has long regulated the export of barley, The Age reported March 28.

"The new act allows growers to deliver bulk barley to the exporter of their choice," said state Agriculture Minister Rory McEwen.

Mr McEwen said an independent regulator, the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, would administer the scheme over the next three years.

"The future of the barley single desk has been a complex and long-standing issue and it's been pleasing to see the leadership shown by the industry in recommending these changes," the minister said.