The beer brewer in the Democratic Republic of Congo sees impressive returns from shipping its products along the country’s waterways instead of using trucks on the open roads. This makes life and business easier and more profitable for the brewing giant.
Transport is also much cheaper as they’re not limited to road routes and are able to even run their own harbour. Through their support system, they have hired many boatsmen as well as helped entrepreneurs to build their own transport boats for the company.
We use many smaller, independent boat operators. We use a lot of boats, small boats, big boats, you name it,” says Hans van Memeren, the general manager of Bralima. “They transport everything for us… raw materials, bottles and crates… and then there’s the distribution side, where they’re up and down the waterways for us.”
Bralima has also helped the communities surrounding it by employing many community members who were previously unemployed. They’re involved in the packing of the harbour, transferring of the product as well as the transportation up and down the waterways, which has for years been the preferred transport method in the DRC. Some of the boats are able to transport up to 530 tonnes whereas trucks will battle with even 100 tonnes. That makes it a much better source of income for the employees, who were seemingly born on the water. One company in particular has more that 130 workers working just on loading the ships.
The loaders work in four teams who are constantly unpacking, counting, labeling and organising the brewer’s products before they’re loaded up and shipped to their next destination where another team waits to unpack them.
Who needs roads and rail when the waters are still big business?
The beer brewer in the Democratic Republic of Congo sees impressive returns from shipping its products along the country’s waterways instead of using trucks on the open roads. This makes life and business easier and more profitable for the brewing giant. 
