May 6 (Bloomberg) -- SABMiller Plc, the world’s second- biggest brewer, plans to open its fourth factory in Tanzania by November, boosting beer production by 22 percent.

The facility, built at a cost of $55 million, will be able to produce 600,000 hectoliters (15.9 million gallons) of beer annually, Robin Goetzsche, managing director of Tanzania Breweries Ltd., said in an interview today in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. The company has breweries in Dar es Salaam and the northern cities of Arusha and Mwanza that produced 3.25 million hectoliters last year.

“Our volume over the last few years has grown about 5 percent per annum,” said Goetzsche. “We expect continued growth, and with it further expansion.”

The economy of Tanzania, an East African nation of 41 million people, is expected to grow about 5 percent this year, compared with 7.5 percent last year. The country is Africa’s third-largest gold producer and derives about 40 percent of its gross domestic product from agriculture.

Tanzania Breweries is also spending about $24 million to upgrade its Arusha and Mwanza breweries and add a new 36,000- bottles-per-hour line at its main plant in Dar es Salaam by October, Goetzsche said. Last month, the company opened a 48,000-bottles-per-hour line in Dar es Salaam at a cost of $20 million.

The company will this year buy about 9,000 metric tons of barley, the main ingredient in beer-making, from farmers in Tanzania’s northern regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara, for processing at its Moshi-based malting plant, Bennie Basson, barley project manager, said in an interview in Dar es Salaam.

Barley Production

The expansion of plantings to the southern regions of Iringa, Ruvuma, Rukwa and Mbeya should boost production of the grain to about 50,000 tons over five years, he said.

“In the next three to five years we hope to have full self- sufficiency in barley production in Tanzania for our breweries,” Goetzsche said.

SABMiller owns 52.83 percent of Tanzania Breweries, while East African Breweries Ltd. of Kenya holds 20 percent, the International Finance Corp. 4 percent, and the government of Tanzania 4 percent, according to the company’s 2008 annual report.

About 6 percent of the shares are traded on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, while the remainder is controlled by domestic pension and social security funds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Dar es Salaam via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 6, 2009 09:24 EDT