Brussels - Heineken has set up a joint venture with Africa-focused trading firm CFAO in Ivory Coast and laid the foundation stone for a new brewery there, it said on Friday.
The world's third-largest beer maker, which will own 51 percent of the new Brassivoire venture, said the partners would invest 100 billion CFA francs ($172 million) in the brewery, the first occupant of the PK24 industrial site north of Abidjan.
Ivory Coast is booming, a rare African bright spot as the world's biggest cocoa producer bounces back from years of turmoil and civil war.
The brewery, set to be operational at the start of 2017, will have a capacity of 1.6 million hectolitres per year.
Brassivoire is expected to create about 700 jobs directly and could support 40 000 jobs indirectly, with the goal of sourcing 60 percent of agricultural raw materials locally in Africa by 2020.
Heineken and CFAO already have a joint venture in Congo-Brazzaville. CFAO will own 49 percent of Brassivoire.
REUTERS