Bangladesh: Government mulling production of beer at state-owned distillery Carew & Co

The government of Bangladesh has been mulling producing beer at the country's only state-owned distillery – Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd – to meet the growing demand for alcohol in the country, the Dhaka Tribune reported on December 29.

Citing growing demand, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Saturday said a new unit would be installed at Darshana Sugar Mill in Chuadanga in order to double its production capacity.

Several highly placed sources at the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) said the aim of installing the second unit is producing beer, and some foreign companies have already shown their interest in this regard.

However, the officials refused to go on record as the beer production decision is still at the initial stage.

“Right now, we are not in a position to invest in a plant, but it can be established through a joint venture,” one of the sources said.

“The aim of the second unit is to produce beer because already Carew has a profitable liquor unit. One Bangladeshi Beer ‘Hunter’ is also selling goods in the domestic market,” he added.

In addition, BSFIC has already called for a tender to automate liquor production.

The product line of Carew’s alcohol currently includes fine brandy, cherry brandy, yellow label malted whiskey, imperial whiskey, old rum, rosa rum, gold riband gin, orange curaçao, and tsarina vodka.

When contacted, Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, managing director of Carew and Co, told Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday that the process of automation had already started to boost production.

“Right now, Carew and Co are producing on average 7,000 litres of liquor per day manually. The process started in 1938. When automation kicks off, production will increase three-fold,” said Mohaddad Fida Hossain Badsha, general manager of Carew’s distillery unit.

The British American Tobacco (BAT) Company has already made a contract with the government to produce sugarcane on 35 acres of land this year.

Officials said this hybrid plant cultivated by BAT will be able to produce 40 tons of sugarcane per acre, helping meet the demand from Carew and other sugar mills.

Carew sells around 13,000 cases of liquor per month, which jumped to 18,579 cases in October and 19,446 cases in November this year because of a shortage of imported liquor in the local market.

Given the situation, the government is eyeing the introduction of new plants and marketing plans, including increasing the number of sales centres in Bangladesh to enhance revenue, said officials.

Right now, Carew has 13 warehouses and three sales centres in Bangladesh. Two new sales centres in Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata will be introduced soon.

The state-owned Carew and Company is the only profitable sugar mill of Bangladesh, despite its sugar unit incurring losses every year. The losses have been offset by the profits from the distillery unit.

The company made a Tk195 crore profit by selling liquor in FY21.

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