Tamale, Nov. 6, GNA - Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL) last year spent three billion cedis in purchasing 900 tonnes of locally produced maize for beer production.

This represents 25 percent of the total raw materials requirement of the company, Mr Segun Adebanji, Managing Director of GBL, said on Wednesday at a media encounter in Tamale.

Mr Adebanji, who was explaining the company's policies, strategies and expectations to newsmen, said GBL's raw materials requirement was expected to increase next year, following an increase in beer consumption pattern in the country.

He said the Company's machinery had now been structured to use maize for the production, adding that GBL was exploring the possibility of using sorghum as an additional raw material for beer brewing.

"This is good news for maize farmers since the problem of marketing of their produce would then be addressed", he said, adding, "Our efforts should therefore encourage them to increase their production levels to keep the company in business".

Mr Adebanji urged the government to reduce the excise duty on beer to make the industry to grow, saying, "right now my company pays 50 percent as excise duty while those who import hard drinks into the country pay only five per cent as excise duty".

"There is no equity in the distribution of tax on beer and this is affecting our finances and expansion of our business," he noted. He appealed to the government to give some tax concessions to beer manufacturing companies to promote a solid local business for the product.

He explained that before the company could export its products it must first build a solid local base.

Mr Adebanji said it had come to the notice of the company that some people were using the GBL's Bluna soft drink bottles in bottling their products whose colour look like the original Bluna and appealed to the public to help GBL to apprehend such culprits.