Harrar Brewery

Harrar Brewery is located in the outskirts of the historic town of Harrar in eastern Ethiopia, the fourth holiest islamic city. The brewery is well known for the popular taste of its beer and the diversity of its products. Harrar Brewery is the only Ethiopian brewery that sales abroad.

The Harar brewery markets a Pilsner to compete with Bedele, St. George, and Meta, but also produces an increasingly-popular dark beer, " Hakim Stout " and a non-alcoholic beverage, " Harar Sofi ," that appeals to the large Muslim population in the region and throughout Ethiopia.

Most of the machinery and equipment in the brewery are from the Czech Republic. It occupies a total area of 103,407 m 2 . Land is available for future expansion. Genela spring, from which Harrar beer is brewed, is within the factory's compound and supplementary water supply has been made available from the Finkile deep-well and Alemaya Pump Station. The installed capacity of the brewery is 200,000 hl per annum. Under normal conditions, the daily capacity is four brewing cycles, each consisting of 200 hl. With slight changes in the brewing-house, the daily capacity could be raised to five cycles.

In the bottling section, the general production rate reaches 20,000 bottles per hour. Recently, the factory replaced its old labeling machines with a new machinery suitable for front and back labeling, neck labeling, foiling and date printing. There is also a new keg filling plant for draught beer, with washing and filling stations.

Harrar Beer is sold almost everywhere in the country. In the early years of its operation, the brewery exported large quantities of beer to the USA, Canada and Djibouti. This was interrupted in early 1990s, but has now been revived adding the Netherlands to the list of export markets. The sales activity is carried out partly by the brewery itself and partly by sales agents. The direct sales by the brewery covers some 46% of the total volume. Branch offices in Dire Dawa, Shashemene and Addis Ababa promote the sales activity.

Before the establishment of Assela Maltery, the brewery used to import malt from abroad. Nowadays malt is imported in small quantities for blending purposes only. In general, the brewery imports all chemicals for treatment and sanitation purposes. Hop is imported mostly from Germany.

The repair and maintenance of all machinery and vehicles are carried out by the brewery's maintenance division. All machinery are in good condition. Downtime is minimal. Electricity is supplied from the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. Two transformers with a capacity of 1,250 KVA each are installed in the Brewery's premises. Supplementary water is pumped from a place called Finkile, 33 km from the premises, which is jointly used with Hamaressa Edible Oil Factory.

- source: Ethiopian Privatization Agency