# Mozambique

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country/mz/info

- Official name: Republic of Mozambique
- Local name: República de Moçambique
- Caps in the collection: 8 (https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country_caps/116)
- Brands: 4

## Beer in Mozambique

Across southern Africa, Bantu-speaking peoples brewed sorghum beer long before it was written down, adding maize, millet and cassava as adjuncts. In Mozambique the old drink survives as pombe, a beer of millet or maize flour. Industrial beer came late. In 1932 a Greek immigrant named Cretikos, who had opened the Victoria ice and mineral-water works in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in 1916, began to brew the country's first beer with a German brewmaster and named it Laurentina after the people of the town, the "laurentinos"; the works later became the Fábrica de Cerveja Reunidas. Laurentina was also sold in South Africa, whose holidaymakers came to Mozambique until the mid-1970s.

The MacMahon brewery opened in Maputo in 1950. Its name gave the 2M beer, after Patrice de Mac-Mahon, the French president who in 1875 arbitrated the dispute between Portugal and Britain over the Maputo bay. The Manica brewery was set up in Beira five years later (English Wikipedia says 1959). In 1972 MacMahon, Manica and Cervejas Reunidas were merged as Sogere, the Sociedade Geral de Cervejas e Refrigerantes de Moçambique, which was nationalised eight years later. After independence in 1975 Laurentina, once the market leader, lost most of its sales to 2M.

Privatisation put the market under one roof. Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM) was founded on 1 August 1995 from the MacMahon and Manica breweries of Maputo and Beira, and the South African group SABMiller took 49.1% and the management; a KHS profile dates the privatisation to 2005. CDM bought the Laurentina brand in 2002 (Wikipedia elsewhere gives 2001, a Lusa report 2022), so it now owns every old Mozambican brand. A third brewery, built by Krones at Nampula for US$65 million, opened in 2010. In 2011 CDM launched Impala, the first commercial beer made from cassava, sold under a special tax regime; by 2015 it had sold 100 million bottles and was the third most drunk beer in the country, and a maize version followed in 2017. AB InBev took over SABMiller in October 2016; in 2025 it held 83.01% of CDM, the state 1.37% and the social security institute 2.6%.

Heineken began in Mozambique in late 2016 with an office that imported Heineken, Amstel, Sagres and Strongbow, and opened its first brewery on 13 March 2019 between the Marracuene and Manhiça districts: US$100 million and 0.8 million hectolitres a year. Its local beer is Txilar, brewed with maize from Catandica in Manica province and exported to Eswatini since April 2022. CDM replied with a brewery of its own at Marracuene, 30 km north of Maputo: the foundation stone was laid on 7 December 2018 and the US$180 million plant was opened by President Filipe Nyusi in April 2021. It can make 2.4 million hectolitres a year, with room for 6.7 million. CDM now brews in Maputo, Marracuene, Beira and Nampula; Wikipedia gives it about 94% of the market.

Craft beer is tiny. A travel blog describes the Bazaruto Brewing Company, a small-batch microbrewery on the northern edge of Vilanculos that makes unfiltered beers from German and South African ingredients, and Untappd lists the Maputo City Brewery as a nano brewery. CDM's profit nearly tripled in 2024 to 1.706 billion meticais, about US$26.7 million. In March 2026 the company said it had bought about 33,500 tonnes of Mozambican maize in the last season to cut imports. In June 2026 2M became the official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Mozambique, a first for a national brand, and on 24 October 2026 the Mozambique Beer Expo returns to Maputo.

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Cervejas de Moçambique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervejas_de_Mo%C3%A7ambique)
- [Wikipedia: Laurentina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurentina)
- [Wikipedia (pt): Laurentina (cerveja)](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurentina_(cerveja))
- [Lusa: Profits at national beer brewer almost tripled in 2024 (2025)](https://aman-alliance.org/Home/ContentDetail/90316)
- [Food Business Africa: Cervejas de Moçambique nearly triples profit in 2024 (2025)](https://www.foodbusinessmea.com/cervejas-de-mocambique-nearly-triples-profit-in-2024-driven-by-strong-sales-market-leadership/)
- [KHS: Cervejas de Moçambique, all's well that ends well (2022)](https://competence.khs.com/en/customer-stories/alls-well-that-ends-well)
- [Food Business Africa: AB InBev officially cuts ribbon to fourth brewery in Mozambique (2021)](https://www.foodbusinessmea.com/ab-inbev-officially-cuts-ribbon-to-its-fourth-brewery-in-mozambique-worth-us180m/)
- [inside.beer: AB InBev counterattacks Heineken with new 2 million hl brewery (2018)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/mozambique-ab-inbev-counterattacks-heineken-with-new-2-million-hl-brewery)
- [Heineken: HEINEKEN opens first brewery in Mozambique (2019)](https://www.theheinekencompany.com/newsroom/heineken-opens-first-brewery-in-mozambique-a-us100-million-investment/)
- [Club of Mozambique: Eswatini on Txilar's export route (2022)](https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-eswatini-on-txilars-export-route/)
- [The Citizen (AFP): Commercial cassava beer taps new market in Mozambique (2015)](https://thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/commercial-cassava-beer-taps-new-market-in-mozambique-2536904)
- [The Oxford Companion to Beer: Africa, traditional brewing in](https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/izd8yFIQEc)
- [Diário Económico: Cervejas de Moçambique reforçam aposta no milho nacional (2026)](https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/03/20/negocios/agronegocios/cervejas-de-mocambique-reforcam-aposta-no-milho-nacional/)
- [Diário Económico: Cerveja 2M lança campanha dedicada ao Mundial (2026)](https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/06/06/lifestyle/cerveja-2m-lanca-campanha-dedicada-ao-mundial/)
- [MZNews: Mozambique Beer Expo regressa com novas experiências (2026)](https://mznews.co.mz/mozambique-beer-expo-regressa-com-novas-experiencias-numa-aposta-entre-turismo-a-economia-local/)
- [Travel2Unlimited: Vilanculos, Bazaruto Brewing Company](https://travel2unlimited.com/mozambique-vilanculos-bazaruto-brewing-company/)
- [Untappd: Maputo City Brewery](https://untappd.com/MaputoCityBrewery)
- [Archontology: Mozambique, Polity Style 1975-2026](https://www.archontology.org/nations/mozambique/01_polity.php)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Mozambique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mozambique)
- [Wikipedia: Portuguese Mozambique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Mozambique)

## Breweries (1)

- [Cervejas de Mocambique](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/2295.md) — 8 caps, 1995–