In a rustic the place alcohol is banned, Pakistan’s prime brewery has to make modifications | EUROtoday

A pungent fug of malt and yeastiness hangs over Murree Brewery, Pakistan ’s largest and oldest producer of alcoholic drinks.

The firm is an outlier in a rustic the place alcohol is outlawed for everybody besides non-Muslims, who make up some 9 million folks out of 241 million. Pakistan, an Islamic republic, banned booze for Muslims within the Nineteen Seventies.

Murree Brewery has robust financials regardless of the prohibition, because of its historical past, scant competitors and a small, thirsty and predominantly elite shopper base.

But the federal government exerts vital management over the sale and advertising and marketing of alcoholic drinks via crimson tape and excessive taxes, pushing brewery chairman Isphanyar Bandhara to increase the corporate’s footprint in Pakistan’s non-alcoholic drinks business, which, though greater, is extra crowded and fewer profitable.

“Even I tell my staff of about 2,200 that we cannot sit on our laurels by selling alcohol,” stated Bandhara, the third era of his household to run the 165-year-old enterprise that was based by the British. “It’s a restricted market, so we have to rely and focus more on the non-alcoholic side. That’s where I think I would like to flex my muscles and take credit, rather than being a liquor baron.”

The brewery already manufactures power drinks, juices and malted drinks, however they aren’t as nicely often called merchandise from huge worldwide manufacturers. However, this a part of the enterprise is registering double-digit progress, and Bandhara needs to money in on the nation’s youth bulge. Around 64% of the inhabitants is beneath 30.

Pakistan’s authorities determines the brewery’s alcohol costs, factors of sale and buyer base. Last 12 months it took $35 million from the brewery’s income in taxes. The firm can not promote its alcoholic drinks or increase that a part of the enterprise inside Pakistan. Online procuring is unavailable.

The brewery is permitted to export beer to international locations exterior the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc, although there’s a “big demand for liquor and beer” in Muslim-majority international locations, Bandhara stated.

Meanwhile, extra Pakistanis drink much more sodas and juices, with billions of {dollars} in gross sales yearly. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola dominate, however there are additionally homegrown manufacturers.

“The multinationals are thriving in Pakistan,” Bandhara stated. “It’s a rewarding market. There might be less money (in non-alcoholic drinks), but it’s more secure.”

Murree Brewery’s malted drinks line is packaged in a approach that strongly resembles its beery counterparts. The style, whereas not disagreeable, is distinctive, candy and barely yeasty.

How to drink in Pakistan

Alcohol is a distinct segment merchandise in Pakistan. Even cooking elements like crimson wine vinegar, and shopping for necessities like cough drugs, is tough due to their alcohol content material, nevertheless minuscule.

Five-star accommodations slip a drinks checklist into the in-room eating menu or decant alcohol right into a extra discreet vessel, like a teapot. Some eating places, often upscale, permit diners to convey a bottle however seat them away from others or defend the pour from prying eyes. There is usually a windowless, joyless bar in main Pakistani cities.

Non-Muslims — nationals and foreigners — can get a liquor allow permitting them to purchase restricted quantities of alcohol. Diplomats and the elite are a wealthy supply of booze, with well-stocked cupboards and generally complete rooms devoted to drinks.

There are additionally wine outlets, however solely in some provinces and run by non-Muslims. Some wine outlets ship to clients ready of their vehicles, for discretion. Home supply can be accessible.

“It’s not expensive to buy beer,” stated Faisal, a Pakistani Muslim drinker who’s in his 30s and lives within the province of Sindh. He solely gave his first identify as a result of he’s breaking the regulation. “A local beer will cost 500 rupees ($1.76), but you can save 50 rupees if you don’t want it chilled.”

He added: “Beer is cheaper than coffee in Pakistan, but you only need one coffee whereas you need a lot of beer.”

Non-sanctioned alcohol drinking in Pakistan is punishable by 80 lashes of a whip, although the Federal Shariat Court deemed the penalty un-Islamic in a 2009 ruling.

Alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. Although a sin and not a crime, scholars and religious authorities typically point to a verse in the Quran that calls intoxicants “the work of Satan” and tells believers to keep away from them. They additionally cite sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and the consequences of alcohol.

Nonetheless, stacked on pallets at Murree Brewery on a current day had been packing containers of booze. The beer was heading to government-authorized retailer Pearl Continental Hotel within the jap metropolis of Lahore. The whiskey was going to Sindh, residence to non secular minorities together with Hindus and Parsis.

Bandhara, who’s Parsi, is without doubt one of the brewery’s main tasters. Only non-Muslims can pattern the corporate’s alcoholic merchandise.

“We can’t just force someone to drink an inferior drink, so it has to be quality,” Bandhara stated. “If the German Embassy, the Chinese Embassy and a lot of European embassies are my customers for beer, I’m comfortable on my quality.”

Hundreds of Pakistani distilleries produce the intoxicating agent ethanol, which is usually exported. Home brewers are one other supply of alcoholic drinks. But selfmade liquor containing toxic methanol has proved deadly, and dozens of individuals have died through the years.

Murree Brewery’s closest competitors for alcohol is the Chinese-run Hui Coastal Brewery and Distillery Limited, which started making beer in southwestern Balochistan in 2021, largely for the 1000’s of Chinese staff there.

Nobody from Hui was accessible to remark.

The granting of a licence to Hui in conservative Balochistan took Bandhara aback. He stated he was unafraid of competitors however needed a degree enjoying discipline.

Decades in the past, his household needed to arrange a brewery in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. Bandhara stated authorities instructed the household to maintain their heads down as a result of they had been in a Muslim nation.

“If the Islamic lecture is for me, why was the license given to the Chinese brewery?” he asked. “We are a liquor company, and we are the easiest to throw stones at and to criticize.”