Ethiopia: Traditional Alcohols Fight to Remain Competitive with Alternatives

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Eden Sahle

8 January 2012

Modernisation, in the form of transitioning from ghettos to condominiums accompanied by inflation, is taking a toll on the market for traditional, homemade malt beer or tella.

Tella’s ingredients include wheat or barley malt, dried and ground hops, and a cake made from soaked maize that has been roasted to the point of charring and ground by hand. The crude distillation process means that it is brewing even as it is drunk from a glass or can into which it has been poured. The glass has to be picked up gently, drunk carefully, and put down cautiously, in order not to disturb the dredge that settles at the bottom.

It is sold in very low-end places at very low prices, and, often, as people improve their economy they promote themselves to bars where factory beer is sold. One would think that tella’s position of dominance for low-incomes would remain intact.

This mild drink has an alcohol content of only two to four per cent, the Global Status Report on Alcohol, published in 2004 says. A slightly more distilled version of it, called filter tella, has five to six per cent.

Some people probably needed to drink a great deal of tella to get drunk, but they still manage to do so. Now, increasingly, more people are giving it up for draught beer.

If condominiums have affected tella, it has been more so through the people who make it. Eyerusalem Asfaw, 52, used to live with her husband and their four children in a two bedroom kebele house in Lideta District, where she paid a monthly rent of just three Birr. She used to sell tella and tej (honey mead) in that house, with seven per cent to 11pc alcohol content, although the former was the primary choice of her customers.

When part of Lideta District was demolished for redevelopment, Eyerusalem and her family moved to Goterra Condominums along Sierra Leone Street.

“I could no longer pound the hops nor bake the tella bread,” Eyerusalem said, speaking of how she was transformed from an income earner to someone who totally depended on her husband.

Azeb Tilahun has been selling tella for years on the other side of town, around Megenagna. She dropped out of school in grade six to help her mother with the business of selling tella and areqe, a homemade distilled liquor. The business supported the family, which included four other sisters.

Half a decade ago, they sold a 750mL can of tella for just two Birr. With the rising costs of all the inputs, however, the same amount now costs five Birr, only two Birr short of a glass of draught beer.

Solomon Aseged has been Azeb’s neighbour for years and a regular customer at the poorly constructed mud house, which served as the tella bar. Now earning 3,200 Br from regular and part-time work as an accountant, he no longer feels at home there.

His increased income has enabled him to enjoy liquor and drought beer in more “appealing” establishments than Azeb’s tella bar. The same opinion was echoed by his friends and neighbours who claimed to have switched from drinking the traditional less-alcoholic beverage.

“All my previous customers now prefer to drink draught beer, which sells for seven Birr, instead of drinking tella for five Birr,” Azeb said.

Between 2005, when Solomon started sipping Azeb’s tella, and 2010, Ethiopia’s per capita income has been reported to have grown from 164.6 dollars to 344.6 dollars. It is not clear if that has played any role in killing the demand for tella.

Ethanol Fuel Production Choking Local Liquors

The ethanol produced from molasses may be saving Ethiopia a good deal of foreign currency, as it is used to supplement petroleum imports, but liquor factories are losing money, particularly during the holidays, because of the short supply of molasses.

In 2009/10 alone, the state-owned Finchaa, Wongi, and Metehara sugar factories produced 57.1 million litres of ethanol to be blended with petroleum, according to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA).

This thirst for alcohol as a combustible comes at the expense of such liquor producers as the National Alcohol Liquor Factory, the largest of its type, which normally witnesses a sales boost during the holidays. This distillery produces 14 different kinds of alcoholic beverages, including the more popular supermint and pineapple flavoured areqes.

Ethiopians’ demand for local and imported beverages is growing by the year. The import of alcohol of all kinds between 2005 and 2010 has grown from 310tn to 1,055tn. Small places, such as groceries, which accommodate only a handful of people and distribute liquor to other retailers as well as large establishments, such as the big hotels, are benefiting from this boom.

Hagza Grocery, a.k.a. Ayele Zera, has room for not more than five people at a time in its bar. The bar is packed with local and imported liquors as well as energy drinks.

Patrons queue in front of the National Alcohol Liquor Factory, around Mexico, to buy holiday spirits. The Factory is struggling to meet the high demand seen at this time of year.

If drinking there, a shot of the imported liquor is available for 20 Br, while the local costs five Birr. Various whiskies are available for 552 Br to 1,300 Br, Stolichnaya Vodka for 228 Br and Italian and South African wines for 50 Br to 136 Br. But, more popular among the customers of this little grocery is the 60 Br araqe, called Ouzo, according to Wudinesh Nigage, who works there.

The state-owned Awash Winery produces 50,000 bottles of various wines daily, according to an official who requested anonymity. But, it increases its production of export standard Guder, Kemila, Crystal, and Dukem brands during the holidays.

Brands for the local market sell for 30 Br a bottle, 20 Br cheaper than the export standard brands. The company, which has 27 supply chains in the country, has a 200ht vineyard where it produces 80,000ql, biannually.

While the winery finds it easy to boost production to match the holiday demand increase, the distillery, which is producing at 60pc of its capacity because of the molasses shortage, is finding it hard to meet the demand for its liquors.

In some bars these liquors, particularly the supermint and pineapple flavours, are the second choice for many patrons after draught beer. However, with the CSA forecasting a demand for ethanol of 99 million litres in 2011/12, this challenge will remain for awhile.

Be the first to Write a Comment!

Today’s Featured News

Nigerians Launch Massive Anti-Govt Strike Over Fuel Prices
Guinea Bissau President Dies, UN Appeals to Leadership
Kenyan Farmers Insure Cattle Against Drought

Business/Technology News

Coca Cola’s Role in Swaziland Questioned
One-Stop Border Posts to Spur Trade in Kenya
Where to Invest in Africa’s Media Industry