BRALIRWA, the only soft drinks and beer manufacturing company in Rwanda, has hiked prices of its products, some by Frw200.

Consumers who used to pay Frw1,000 for a bottle of Heineken will now fork out Frw1,200, according to the new recommended price list.

"We have tried to keep our prices at affordable levels to remain attractive for our customers.

However the current increase in prices of all our raw materials, such as malted barley, maize, sugar and price of bottles and crates as well as fuel and transport costs have led us to increase prices to meet production costs,” BRALIRWA managing director Door Plantenga said at a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Kigali on Friday. 

The new price list saw sodas increase from Frw175 to Frw250.

For beers, a 33cl bottle of Primus increased from Frw250 to Frw300 and the 72cl bottle from Frw450 to Frw550.

The price of the small Mutzig (33cl) was maintained at Frw400 and the bigger Mutzig (65cl) rose from Frw650 to Frw750.

Other products such as Amstel increased from Frw400 to Frw500 and Guinness from Frw450 to Frw550.

During the conference, Plantenga said that the increase in the prices of their products was due to the increase in price of raw materials on the world market.

However she mentioned that by the end of July, more volumes were being consumed upcountry. She attributed the increasing demand to Rwanda’s quickly growing economy.

"People today have more money to spend compared to last year and we are seeing a huge increase in the volumes consumed upcountry than from Kigali,” she said, pointing out that the volume consumed for the month of July are up 23 per cent from last year.

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