Is beer the favorite drink in Madagascar?

@Pepindo

Hey ho,

Beer is famous for sure. If it's not to expensive. Craft beer needs much hop, you have to do thousands of liters, to make it payable. Check the ingredients, and how to get them there, hop they plant in Madagascar.

@Stahlschrank

Thank you for your response. Do you happen to know if hops and barley are grown in Madagascar?

@Pepindo

Yes, the plant it.

There are two big players for beer, one bottle is around 4000 ariary / 80 Euro-Cent, depends the area. ( Half Liter)

Star is a big company, the do coca cola and all that stuff in license too, and the THB beer, what is famous there .

If they will let you get in that business .....also you have to get a license.

In Madagascar you loose fast your money, and you need time.

Have you been to Madagascar?

Again and again :-)

Since 2017....

So you know it well there. Why don't you stay there permanently? My plan is to cross the entire island on a motorcycle as soon as possible and I originally wanted to open a motorcycle rental shop for bikers like me, but that seems too complicated to me due to the quality of the roads, so I'm thinking about a small craft brewery, nothing big, no competition with big breweries. Have you traveled the whole island yet? How does it work there?

The road is one think, but try to get bikes,that are not from China....

:-) you can do business with tourists, it's growing slowly. To do business like bike renting with locals ....not a good idea ...

Do your motorbike trip, and look by yourself. You can buy a Enfield there, it's a good option , better than the Chinese. To stay you need an " investor visa" . Focus on investor. -

To open a bar is not a big thing. There you can do your beer business, if you get a license for doing alcohol .

Thank you for the information. Do you go there every year? Going on vacation?

https://namana.mg/#about

@didiergougard

Thanks for a link. Du you know this brasserie? Where are they from?

@Stahlschrank hope is a very typical long day plant, meaning it needs for sure more than 16 hours of daylight to produce the right quality. I have been in african agriculture research and I have never came across a succesfull hope growing in Africa.

@oliver sodo

Hi, have you worked in agricultural research in madagascar? What is your opinion on growing malted barley for breweries in Madagascar?

hello i worked mainl in east africa mainland in research. barley should work, mainly in the highland but needs checking of rain season or irrigation...as well a carefull selection of the varieties, but I would suggest to look at ethiopia, whihch has the biggest malt production in east africa

@oliver sodo

Hi, thanks for the information. Do you know anything about growing hops in Madagascar? My intention is to support local suppliers for my brewery in Madagascar.

Hello Pepindo,

Hop is a so called long day plant, which needs for flower induction long days as we have in the northern hemisphere during summer, in this time the daily sunshine  -time in hours can reach the genetic fixed time in hours, which this variety (counts for many diffierent plants) to conduct flowers.

For excample the longest day in germany is arround the 21 of June and can give 16hours daylight. This 21st is also called the Johannes day, due that on this day the Hypericum var. will start flowering. If you take such a hypericum plant to madagascar, it will grow but not realy flower (endemic Hyperic exist in madagascar and reacts totaly different)! Scientificly we call this phototropismus. Also see that the shortes day is only providing 7 hours daylight at the 22 of December. This environmental character is not existing in the tropics, giving some plants limited condition. (on the other hand the Germany can not grow Mango)

Now in comercial horticulture some light technic can overcome this character, that is way you see often light in greenhouses, but it is very capital expensive and will not pay for a crop like hop! Meaning you could build big street light over your hope field (hope grows on 9m high trellis), so quite difficult!

Now in the tropics we have more or less a constant daylight supply over the year.

Intresting might be the following - local beer procuced in small household farms in Ethiopia is adding a plant, which has similar bitter tast, nowns as Rhamnus prinoides! But non research has been done on this for comercial use in common beer production!

A other solution would be breading, but that is a long way to go and I am sure that big hop companies working on this, due that the european hop production is realy under preasure by climate change and that the dry and hot summers now in Europe in decreasing the yield and Quality every year!

My personal advice is, do it as the big once, find a good supplier of hop pelets and extract, the ammount you need per liter is so low that import will pay. Your biggest volume for beer brewing is malt, for this you need a local supplier!

And don´t forget you water, that has in all means the biggest impact on your beer, pH, carbon, temperature, etc you might need a revers-osmose and coooling (for the brew water not storage) system on side. Try to send samples to a European lab! Discuss with your equipment supplier the water qualety in details, and most important repeat the water test over a period of time, water can change fast!

Oliver

Thank you very much for information.

    hello i worked mainl in east africa mainland in research. barley should work, mainly in the highland but needs checking of rain season or irrigation...as well a carefull selection of the varieties, but I would suggest to look at ethiopia, whihch has the biggest malt production in east africa
   

    -@oliver sodo

I think Kenya has the biggest malt production in East Africa.

@Pepindo

I am originally in madagascar but from kenya.

I can help you put together some ideas on this.

Have you already started production?

@patswald sorry to ask you, but your name seems a bit German

Oops, sorry I meant I'm originally from Kenya, lol, but now on my third week here in Madagascar. 

German? Never been there. What gives you that idea? That's besides the point anyway.

Hello, my production is currently running here and in Slovakia in Central Europe, but my plan is to expand the business in this field to Madagascar as well. I will definitely need a supplier for malt and other ingredients to make beer, and of course the closer the better. If you have experience in this field, we can establish business relations beneficial for each party.

Why did you leave Kenya for Madagascar?

I am actually just having my third THB beer here in  the house in Antananarivo.

I'm an avid beer drink, been drinking for the last 20 years...since I was 18. I love a good tasting beer and can tell what's good from what's trash.

Kenya has some of the best beer in the world btw, not an exergeration.  So my judgement is very good.

The first time I landed here, it was around 2.00 pm...I didn't have any jet lag and I Googled some nice outlets. I walked there. It's in the middle of Antananarivo, HDA casino and bar.

I tried about 4 beers. Sorry but none of them tasted or got to the level I'm used to. I mostly drink Heineken...a foreign brand of course...but Tusker from my country is also at that level. Sells internationally, too.

My point is, Madagascar is a ground that hasn't been explored. It's growing. People would appreciate a better tasting beer, better branding, even.

I think the large scale systems in this country are not developed enough for large scale production of barley. You would need to import that. The rest is easy, because labor is very very cheap. Giving you a really conducive production environment.

Let me know what kind of help you would need while I'm here.

FYI I didn't leave Kenya. I'm Just touring Madagascar.

Let me know what kind of help you would need.

@patswaldI read that in Madagascar, malted barley is grown in mountainous areas, but it is owned by a company producing local beer, THB, and I highly doubt that it would be willing to sell its malt to competitors, and if so, at what price. Importing malt either from Kenya or Ethiopia seems to me to be a good solution. I will see where the conditions and malt quality will be better. I would definitely like someone from a country where malted barley is grown and I don't have Europe in mind. I know the local markets.

I guess you meant on your last sentence,  you know the local markets...well, that's good. The issue here would be doing the math between importing from Europe vs importing from east africa.

The THB guys I doubt they would sell to a competitor. I'm having their beer here and I don't think it's the best quality. Tastes like a low end very cheap product from where I come from. Still I appreciate and ain't hating.

Did I mention that the THB beer bottle is just below a dollar and is a whooping 650 ml. That's big. Never seen such.

I ran into a local lady who owns a soap manufacturing company here who imports about 5 tons of palm oil every month for her small establishment. I guess the palm trees could grow here in Madagascar but it's just not in their culture unlike in Africa or South East Asia. Seems most of the raw materials would have to be imported. Still, something worth looking at.

There are many considerations you would have to make here starting with where in Mada you want to setup, your pricing points, modes of distribution considering its a really really big island, and such.

Remember the systems here are not as smooth as they are in your area, the road networks I mean.

Can I send you a private message?

@I know the markets here in Europe, not in Madagascar. I am definitely considering importing malt from Africa. The choice of place in Madagascar has not yet been completed, I am thinking either Antananarivo or Diego Suarez. Feel free to send me a private message.

@Pepindo

Ah, that sounds great. I have sent you a PM.

@Pepindo

Hi, please check your inbox. I left you a message.

I am sorry I was busy at this days. I will check it. Thanks