Beverage makers have called for the establishment of a factory to manufacture glass made bottles after the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) reinforced the ban on packaging alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles.

The circular on the prohibition of packaging alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles was issued last week, on November 18, 2020, and was signed by Dr. Charles Karangwa, Ag. Director-General of Rwanda FDA.

FDA says that packaging alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles leads to adulteration (loss of quality of drinks), particularly reduced shelf life.

It indicated that some plastic bottles are made of chemicals such as Bisphenol-A (BPA) which, in the presence of alcohol can be dissolved into the drinks especially at the increase of storage temperature.

Other plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) contain an element with the potential to cause cancer that can be re-activated by environmental factors like prolonged exposure to heat and contact with alcohols, it added.

Alcoholic drink makers who talked to The New Times said that they had already replaced the plastic bottles with glass bottles given the health hazards that they were told could stem from the former.

However, they said that glass bottles, which are imported because there is no factory producing them in the country, are costly, something they described as a hindrance for the growth of the beverage industry.

They said that the price of an imported glass bottle is between Rwf250 and Rwf300 at the local market (in Kigali).

Jean de Dieu Bizimana, marketing manager at Inyamamare Ltd, a banana beer making company in Gisagara District said that the company can make about 10,000 litres of alcoholic drink – banana beer locally known as ‘Urwagwa’ per week.

He expressed that the glass bottles are expensive and they can result in increasing the price of the drinks, adding that the banana beer the company makes costs Rwf300 at most for 33 centilitres.

"We should not package alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles if that has been proven to be harmful to consumers’ health. However, there should be affordable alternatives. We need a factory making glass bottles at an affordable price in the country,” he said.

Celestin Munyampundu, Gisagara Agrobusiness Industries (GABI) Ltd Managing Director, which also deals in banana beer said that the high cost of the glass bottles is a challenge.

Importing the bottles in order to save the cost, he said, requires shipping at least a container holding about 86,000 bottles, which implies a lot of money – even at Rwf160 a bottle – which many beverage makers cannot afford.

"Our request is to be supported through setting up a factory that makes glass bottles in Rwanda, or make the imported bottles affordable,” he said.

"If the authority says that packaging alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles can harm human health, we cannot let people undergo such effects,” he said.

In order to ensure the quality and safety of alcoholic drinks on the Rwandan market, Rwanda FDA has recommended their manufacturers to use glass bottles or any other appropriate packages while packaging all alcoholic drinks including banana-based, plant-flavoured (such as ginger) and wine.

It also advised all the distributors to stop receiving and distributing or selling alcoholic drinks packaged in plastic bottles and to report to its manufacturers who use plastic bottles.

For consumers, it said, they should stop buying and consuming alcoholic drinks packaged in plastic bottles and to report sellers and manufacturers who use such bottles.