高粱啤酒：專為非洲釀造，自然風味更佳

????一個男人走進酒吧，點了一杯啤酒。不過，這可不是英國倫敦的酒吧，或者美國密爾沃基的體育酒吧——這里是烏干達的一家酒吧。而他喝的啤酒雖然與米勒牌啤酒（Miller）出自同一家公司，但原料卻是非洲本地非常常見的一種谷物——高粱。

????數個世紀以來，非洲貧民窟的居民一直通過發酵香蕉、菠蘿和棕櫚等當地農作物自釀啤酒，追求廉價的飲酒樂趣。然而這種啤酒有些毒性極強，時常有人因此送醫治療?，F在，南非米勒釀酒公司希望非洲的私酒釀造者能放棄自釀啤酒，購買他們生產的啤酒。

????作為世界第二大釀酒公司，南非米勒釀酒公司（SABMiller）正在烏干達建立高科技小型釀酒廠和小型供應鏈，從烏干達、坦桑尼亞和贊比亞等地的農民那里收購原料，比如高粱，期待能在這一處女地開拓新的市場。非洲出產的這種高粱營養豐富，通常用來制作糖漿或作為飼料。而提供原材料的農民也有望成為米勒啤酒的消費者。

????在產地購買原材料可以減少供應鏈的價格波動、降低物流、庫存和進口關稅成本——因此價格要比大麥啤酒低20%。根據南非米勒釀酒公司的測算，非洲本土化啤酒市場規模將是傳統啤酒市場的三倍。除南非之外，非洲其他地區人均每年僅消費7公升啤酒，這還不包括本土化啤酒；而美國的人均年啤酒消費量為77公升，很顯然，非洲市場蘊藏著巨大的商機。

????2002年，南非米勒釀酒公司的子公司尼羅河啤酒廠（Nile Breweries）首次研制出高粱啤酒配方（并獲得更低的高粱啤酒稅），成為進入該低端市場的首批啤酒廠商。目前，烏干達的所有啤酒中，35%為尼羅河公司的鷹牌（Eagle）高粱啤酒，該款啤酒在坦桑尼亞、贊比亞、津巴布韋和斯威士蘭也有銷售。

????其他啤酒制造商也不甘落后，紛紛出牌。喜力公司（Heineken）和迪阿吉奧公司（Diageo）雖然沒有用高粱全面代替昂貴的大麥作為釀酒原料，但從2008年開始，這兩家公司也同樣在加納、塞拉利昂和喀麥隆推出了高粱啤酒。由于大麥等進口原料的價格飛漲，而南非等主要市場又出現消費停滯，因此，這些公司正在非洲大陸其他地區為家釀啤酒尋找新的市場機會。

????摩根士丹利投資公司（Morgan Stanley）前沿新興市場基金（Frontier Emerging Markets fund）經理蒂姆?德林考爾解釋道：“由于大麥價格高居不下，生產高粱啤酒可以為啤酒廠商帶來利潤。只要公司能夠降低成本，并保證質量，這樣的決策就是積極的?！?/p>

推動經濟增長

????小型供應鏈還將推動當地經濟的發展。據法國歐洲工商管理學院（INSEAD）的研究顯示，2007年，尼羅河啤酒廠為烏干達經濟帶來了9，200萬美元的附加價值，并帶動了約44,000烏干達人的就業，主要涉及農業、制造業、零售業或經銷等行業。（約有9,000名農民向啤酒廠出售高粱）。而且，作為烏干達第四大納稅企業，該公司的稅收貢獻彌補了之前因黑市交易而損失的份額。

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????A guy walks into a bar and orders a pint of beer. But this isn't a pub in London or a sports bar in Milwaukee -- it's a watering hole in Uganda. And the beer, from the same company that brews Miller, is made from sorghum, a grain common to Africa.

????For centuries, Africa's slum dwellers have scored cheap buzzes by fermenting local crops like banana, pineapple and palm into home brews, some of which is so toxic it sends drinkers to the hospital. Now SABMiller wants bootleggers to buy the company's own beer instead.

????By building high-tech microbreweries and micro supply chains sourcing local ingredients like sorghum – a hearty grain normally used for syrup and cattle feed – from farmers in Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia who may buy their beer later, the world's second-biggest brewer hopes to crack a virgin market.

????Sourcing local ingredients cuts supply chain price volatility, and logistics, inventory and import duty costs – and the result is a product priced 20% less than barley beer. The company pegs the Africa home brew market at triple that of traditional beer. Outside South Africa, Africans consume just 7 liters of beer a year per capita (excluding home brews), versus 77 liters in the U.S., so enormous opportunity looms.

????SABMiller subsidiary Nile Breweries first concocted the sorghum beer recipe in 2002 (it also scored lower sorghum beer taxes), making it an early mover in the sub-pyramid space. Today 35% of all Ugandan beer by volume is Nile's Eagle brand sorghum beer, which is also sold in Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

????But other brewers are quickly following suit. Since 2008, Heineken and Diageo (DEO) have done the same in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroon, albeit not replacing pricier barley with sorghum at a 100% rate. As prices for imported staples such as barley soar and key markets like South Africa stagnate, these companies are finding opportunity with home grown brews in other parts of the continent.

????"With barley prices so high, it helps brewers' margins," explains Tim Drinkall, manager of Morgan Stanley's Frontier Emerging Markets fund. "Whenever a company can cut costs and keep up quality, it's a positive."

Economic boost

????Micro supply chains also help local economies. Nile Breweries generated about $92 million in value-added for the Ugandan economy and supported roughly 44,000 Ugandans through agricultural, manufacturing, retailing or distribution jobs in 2007, according to a French business school INSEAD study. (Some 9,000 farmers sell the brewer sorghum.) The company is also Uganda's fourth-largest taxpayer, capturing value previously lost to the black market.

????南非米勒釀酒公司可持續發展部主管安迪?威爾斯表示：“我們希望自給自足的農民能更多地參與到價值鏈中。我們的可購性模式極具吸引力，因為它以當地農作物為核心，這將為當地農民帶來額外收入；而且，在不影響公司核心產品的前提下，可以為公司帶來新的利潤增長點?！敝?，南非米勒釀酒公司的原材料80%依賴進口；而目前，這一比例下降至66%。

????南非米勒釀酒公司曾花費數十年時間，試圖用高端啤酒占據新興市場，當時公司的大部分投入，如大麥與酒瓶，均從國外采購。而其現行的小型供應鏈措施則與之前截然不同。

????南非米勒釀酒公司的策略與可口可樂公司（Coke）和法國達能集團（Danone）當年為進軍非洲這一未經開發的市場所采取的做法類似。拿可口可樂公司來說，它當時并未從印度或歐洲進口果漿，而是在烏干達培植了一種芒果種植文化；而法國達能集團也放棄了進口原材料的做法，轉而從塞內加爾農民那里直接采購乳制品。

????當然，對于這種做法，并非所有市場觀察家都買賬。Harding Loevner前沿新興市場基金（Harding Loevner Frontier Emerging Markets Fund）經理唐?艾弗遜諷刺道：“這不會帶來任何改變?！彼J為，銷售環節的種種困難將導致跨國公司最終被邊緣化，而當地企業將長期占領市場主導地位?！胺侵迣⒀永m家庭作坊式的生產模式?！?/p>

????非洲是一個充滿挑戰的市場，但長期以來，外國零售商一直不得其門而入。非洲原始的公路基礎設施、15個國家都位于內陸的地理條件，以及危險重重的邊境線，這些都增加了設備和原材料的運輸成本，甚至讓運輸變成一項不可能完成的任務。比如說，在新興經濟體國家，平均40%的食品在進入市場或商場之前都會遭到劫掠。

????但是，非洲也擁有年輕的城市化人口；而且，到2015年，全球十個發展最快的國家中，將有七個位于非洲，因此，許多跨國公司都將目光投向了這里。到2016年，約有2億非洲人——超過巴西的總人口數——將進入消費者商品市場。

????南非米勒釀酒公司不懼挑戰，計劃在今年內，在莫桑比克和蘇丹南部釀制以木薯為原料的啤酒（公司甚至發明了一種新的加工方法，解決了木薯在運輸途中的保存難題），并將在今年年底之前，通過培養坦桑尼亞的大麥種植業，將本地采購大麥的比例從10%提高到50%。南非米勒釀酒公司表示，通過用木薯替代其他原材料，每年可節省300萬美元。這將有助于實現公司長期目標——將目前非洲的主流啤酒價格降低一半。

????南非米勒釀酒公司的威爾斯表示：“部分跨國公司正在認真考慮，通過合作來推動非洲的農業發展?！?/p>

????如果這些努力能夠奏效，非洲起碼能成為一個地區性的“大糧倉”。不要忘了，這里還有南非米勒釀酒公司與聯合利華（Unilever）、南非標準銀行（Standard Bank）以及雅苒（Yara）等行業巨頭在坦桑尼亞開展的農業走廊項目（agricultural corridor project）。該項目旨在提高糧食產量、改善公路運輸和冷藏條件。

????翻譯：劉進龍

????"We want subsistence farmers more involved in the value chain," says Andy Wales, head of Sustainable Development at SABMiller. "Our affordability model is attractive because it focuses on local crops and creates additional income for farmers and a new profit pool for us without cannibalizing our core product." Historically, SABMiller has imported 80% of its raw materials in Africa; today that's 66%.

????SABMiller's micro supply chain moves are a sharp departure from its decades-long attempt to flood emerging markets with premium beers, with much of their inputs like barley and bottles sourced abroad.

????But its efforts to penetrate untapped markets echo those by Coke (KO) and Danone to do the same in the African mango juice and dairy markets -- Coke by incubating a mango farming culture in Uganda instead of using Indian or European puree imports, and Danone by sourcing milk for dairy products from Senegalese farmers rather buying it abroad.

????Still, not all market watchers are convinced. "This won't move the needle," quips Don Elefson, a fund manager for the Harding Loevner Frontier Emerging Markets Fund, noting an enduring dominance by local players due to distribution woes that leave multinationals on the sidelines. "Africa is still mom and pop."

????Africa is a challenging market, and one that has long eluded foreign retailers. Its medieval road infrastructure and 15 landlocked countries make delivering machinery, inputs and ingredients across oft-dicey borders costly or impossible – 40% of food in emerging economies spoils before reaching market or store shelves on average.

????But with a young and urbanizing population and seven of the world's ten fastest-growing economies by 2015, many multinationals are eyeing Africa. Roughly 200 million Africans – or more than Brazil's entire population -- will enter the consumer goods market by 2016.

????Undaunted, SABMiller plans to brew cassava-based beer in Mozambique and the Southern Sudan within a year (it's even invented a new processor to preserve cassava en route to the brewery), and to boost local barley sourcing to 50% from 10% of the total by the end of this year by seeding a Tanzanian barley growing industry. Some $3 million could be saved annually by substituting cassava for other ingredients, according to SABMiller. This would help the company meet its long-term goal of halving today's price of mainstream beer in Africa.

????"A select number of multinationals are getting very serious about working together on Africa's agricultural development," says SABMiller's Wales.

????If those efforts bear fruit, along with joint ones by the company and behemoths Unilever (UL), Standard Bank, Yara and others for better crop yields, roads and cold storage through an agricultural corridor project in Tanzania, Africa may yet morph into a local, if not global, breadbasket.