Tue, Apr 05, 2022 page4

• Burmese military’s beer sales plummet on boycott

  • AFP, YANGON, Myanmar
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  When Japanese brewing giant Kirin called time on its Burmese operations last month, the news made little difference to Kyaw Gyi — like many drinkers, he had long boycotted the beer it produced with a military conglomerate.

  For years, Myanmar Beer dominated bars and supermarket shelves, its Japanese backing a sign of the economic liberalization washing into the Southeast Asian nation after the military relaxed its iron grip on power in 2011, but after the generals ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in February last year, many turned their backs on the brew, along with a host of other goods made by companies linked to the armed forces, from soap to coffee.

  “We know other beer brands are paying tax to the military, but we don’t want all of our money going to them,” said sailor Kyaw Gyi, sitting outside a bar on Yangon’s 19th Street, a popular drinking haunt. “We avoid it. If there is only Myanmar Beer in the restaurant, then we don’t drink beer.”

  

  People ride past a restaurant with signage for Myanmar Beer in Yangon, Myanmar, on Thursday last week.

  Photo: AFP

  Farther along the street in Yangon’s bustling downtown, restaurant manager Zaw Naing said that his establishment had not sold the light, 5 percent brew since April last year.

  It was not just the beer orders they had canceled, he added — they also asked the brand to take back all the chairs, tables and umbrellas that bore its red, white and gold emblem.

  “If people see the Myanmar Beer logo with our restaurant name, they won’t come,” he said.

  As anger seethes at the military’s crackdown on dissent — which a local monitoring group says has killed more than 1,700 people — establishments still serving the beer have faced more serious consequences.

  Bombs were set off last month outside two Yangon bars and a restaurant in second city Mandalay that were still selling the beer, local media reported.

  Drivers transporting the beer in the rural central plains have also been stopped by local anti-coup groups and their cargoes trashed, the reports said.

  Myanmar Brewery — the firm run by Kirin and military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings — had enjoyed a market share of nearly 80 percent, according to data published by Kirin in 2018.

  Following months of COVID-19 and coup-related disruption last year, its year-end operating profit was just ￥6.6 billion (US$53.8 million) — compared with ￥13.8 billion the previous year.

  In February, after months of trying to dissolve its partnership with the military-backed firm, and as pressure from rights groups escalated, the Japanese giant announced it would leave Myanmar.

  The boycott and its upcoming exit is leaving rivals Heineken, Carlsberg and Thailand’s Chang eyeing a gap in the market.

  The three breweries “have picked up market share from Myanmar Beer, particularly in the cities,” said a Yangon-based market observer who did not want to be named.

  A representative for Heineken who requested anonymity said that it was “too early to assess and comment on consumer purchasing habits.”

  Back on 19th Street, Aung Myo said that customers had long switched to beers untainted by connections to military-backed firms, such as Chang, Tiger — owned by Heineken — and Carlsberg’s Tuborg.

  “People don’t want to drink Myanmar Beer even though it tastes good,” he said. “Demand is definitely down.”

  In Myanmar’s complex political landscape, there are still some areas where punters can enjoy a Myanmar Beer in peace.

  Crowded bars in the military-built capital, Naypyidaw, were still serving it on a recent Saturday night, and the brew is reportedly still available in further-flung rural areas that have seen little coup-related violence.

  The boycott has also been rebuffed in Rakhine state, where a truce between the junta and Arakan Army rebels fighting for greater autonomy has insulated the state from the turmoil gripping much of the rest of Myanmar.

  “We don’t see any boycott movement here,” said government employee Htun Htun, 28, at a bar in the state capital, Sittwe, where billboards for the beer still lined the streets. “So, we keep drinking it... The alcohol rate is not too high and the taste is good.”

  While the current peace lasts, Nyi Nyi, 27, said that he would not be looking to change.

  “If there’s no problem with the military, we will still choose our usual Myanmar Beer,” he said.
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