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Can One Buy Beer In Muslim Malaysia?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia 2009
How do you sell beer in a country where about 60 percent of the population is Muslim and forbidden by the government to buy it?
Very carefully.
Guinness Anchor, which has the largest market share of the three brewers in Malaysia, recently celebrated Guinness' 250th anniversary with a concert near Kuala Lumpur featuring the Black Eyed Peas. The company had to create a separate area where alcohol could be served and agreed not to use the word "Guinness" at the concert or in advertising promoting the event.
Initially, Muslims were not allowed to attend, but authorities later changed their minds. The concert did not sell out, but about 16,000 people went through the gates. It is not known how many were Muslim.
"We target our activities squarely toward the Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian community bases," said Charles Ireland, the brewer's managing director, referring to the country's largest non-Muslim communities.
Beer In Malaysia
Despite such cultural challenges - and the fact that Malaysia has one of the world's highest excise taxes on alcohol - beer consumption here has remained relatively steady over the last decade.
Analysts and local manufacturers are cautiously optimistic that sales may gradually increase as the economy improves, disposable incomes rise and the population of 28 million people grows.
Euromonitor International, an independent market research group, has forecast that beer consumption in Malaysia will increase to 144 million liters this year and to 171 million liters in 2014, from 137 million liters in 2008. While alcohol is banned in some Muslim-majority countries, in Malaysia it is legal for non-Muslims and is available in supermarkets, bars and restaurants.
Still, it remains a sensitive topic.
In July, a Muslim model was sentenced to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel in the eastern state of Pahang. In most states, Muslims found drinking alcohol can be fined up to 3,000 ringgit (about $885), jailed for up to two years or both.
Beer In Malaysia
Muslims caught selling alcohol can be fined up to 5,000 ringgit and jailed for three years. The managing director of Carlsberg Malaysia, Soren Holm Jensen, said brewers had to adapt their marketing strategies because they could advertise only in print and movies, and could aim only at non-Muslims.
Carlsberg, which holds the second-largest market share, ahead of the Napex Corp., uses more product-related advertising in Malaysia, while in other countries it is more likely to depict people drinking in a social setting, Jensen said.
Malaysia, a middle-income country, aims to qualify for developed nation status by 2020. The World Bank has forecast that the Malaysian gross domestic product will grow 4.1 percent next year after contracting 2.3 percent this year.
With renewed economic growth, the only inhibitor to increasing beer sales, some analysts say, could be further excise tax increases. Jensen said the tax amounted to 7.40 ringgit a liter, giving Malaysia the second-highest alcohol tax in the world after Norway.
Beer In Malaysia
An 11-ounce can of Carlsberg typically sells for 5 ringgit at a supermarket. The price in high-end hotels is about 20 ringgit for a bottle.
In a report this year, Euromonitor attributed a rise in Malaysia's alcoholic beverage sales in 2008 to the government's decision not to raise the tax on beer, coupled with the rising affluence of consumers and an increasing number of female drinkers.
Analysts said that when the government had raised the tax, as it did in 1998, and every year from 2003 to 2005, beer consumption fell before gradually recovering as consumers adjusted to the new prices. After the last tax increase in 2005, beer sales fell to 4.8 liters a year for each person from 5.4 liters in 2004, according to Euromonitor.
Guinness Anchor recently reported its best fiscal-year performance since the company was formed 45 years ago, posting revenue of 1.29 billion ringgit and a pretax profit of 191.2 million ringgit for the financial year ended in June.
This year, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party called for a ban on alcohol sales at convenience stores in the Muslim-majority city of Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur.
While a ban was not introduced, the party's member of parliament for Shah Alam, Khalid Samad, said some convenience stores in the area had voluntarily decided to stop selling alcohol.
Siti Zubaidah Ismail, a lecturer at the University of Malaya's department of shariah and law, said about 30 cases involving Muslims drinking alcohol typically came before the courts each year.
She said it could be difficult for the authorities to catch Muslims drinking and there was concern that alcohol consumption might be rising among young Muslims.
Malaysia is not the only Muslim-majority country where alcoholic beverage sales are rising, Euromonitor reported.
Beer In Malaysia
Turkey is expected to record beer sales of 1.1 billion liters this year, up from 727 million in 2004, while sales in Egypt are expected to reach 182 million liters this year, from 118 million in 2004.
Pork is also off-limits to Muslims, and is not found on many menus, so Werner Kuhn opened El Cerdo, a restaurant in a popular dining area in Kuala Lumpur, in 2005.
The name translates as "the pig" in Spanish. "You have to give your customers a reason to come to your place," said Kuhn, a German chef. "You have to offer something no one else does."
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