Rumonge-Bujumbura: Brarudi-products are exported to the DRC and are lacking locally

There is a serious shortage of Brarudi products (Brewery and lemonade from Burundi) since days in different localities of the country. In Bujumbura (economic capital) and Rumonge (south-west of Burundi), businessmen and consumers denounce the export of those products to the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). Sources within Brarudi have since explained the shortage by a lack of foreign currency in the country. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

As Brarudi says it has difficulty finding drinks to offer their customers, bar and hotel owners in Rumonge accuse wholesalers of exporting Brarudi drinks to neighboring DRC.

“We are surprised to see truck-trailers full of Brarudi products unloaded in boats that take the coveted goods to the DRC. It’s weird. And the administration never reacts. Apparently, it’s a compromise between the government and Brarudi”, lament the inhabitants of Rumonge.

For the single day of Thursday of this week, for example, witnesses claim to have counted at least six truck-trailers unloaded at the commercial port of Rumonge.

Price

While the price of drinks has recently been revised upwards by the company, it continues to be revised upwards by owners of bars and hotels. In Rumonge, an Amstel is sold for up to three thousand Burundian francs, the official price being 2700 Burundian francs for example.

In this southwestern province as in the commercial city Bujumbura, owners of bars and hotels complain that finding drinks from the oldest brewery in Burundi is hard or even sometimes not possible. Some even admit that they are considering closing their business.

“The supply of mini-depots with Brarudi products is always done by alternating and regulating the quantities of Amstel, Primus and small Primus. Their distribution in the bistros is done in a limited and irregular way. It is difficult. We are working on loss and risk closing”, they regret.

The increase in the price of drinks and cement, in addition to the general rise in the price of foodstuffs, is making living conditions more and more difficult for the population, who are urging the authorities to “let essential products into the country without paying import fees and lowering taxes on basic necessities”.

Several local authorities claim that “most families live in extreme poverty”.

Some administrators, such as in the province of Kayanza (northern Burundi), recently informed Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca that “40 out of 50 inhabitants that we receive come to us for reasons of poverty. The increase in prices has triggered a situation of extreme poverty among the inhabitants”.