The information was unveiled on September 15 by Nguyen Van Hung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Beer, Alcohol and Beverages.

In a report on Vietnam’s food and drink in the first quarter of the year, the Business Monitor International Ltd. (BMI), a global business consultancy company, pointed out that in Vietnam beer sales will remain the primary driver for the drink industry as it accounted for almost 97.9 percent of alcoholic drinks sales in 2008.

The BMI forecast that beer sales is likely to experience the strongest growth of 48.6 percent during the 2008-2013 period due to the high levels of investment from local players and expansion-oriented multinationals.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), beer, alcohol and soft drinks industry make up 21 per cent of the total production value of the country’s food and drink sector and 4.56 per cent of the nation’s industrial production value. It has grow at an average annual rate of 20 percent.

MoIT said that during 2005-2008, the sector’s production costs reached VND27.2 trillion or US$1.53 billion (55.8 percent for beer, 36.7 percent for soft beverages and 6.06 percent for alcohol and spirits).

Many of the world’s big beer and alcoholic and beverages corporations over the past years have invested in Vietnam, including Carlsberg, Heineken, Tiger and San Miguel. US brewery giant Anheuser-Busch confirmed that it was to unveil its flagship Budweiser beer brand in the Vietnamese market.