The recent barley harvest in Ethiopia is special for HEINEKEN. The first crops have been gathered from a local sourcing partnership we jointly initiated last year. The project aims to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers whilst securing a reliable supply of quality barley, and is part of HEINEKEN’s pledge to source 60% of raw materials in Africa locally by 2020. In Arsi and Bale, two central regions of Ethiopia, smallholder farmers have just finished harvesting brand new crop. The seeds for this new supply were sown last year, as part of a four-year public-private partnership programme, with HEINEKEN as a key partner. The partnership project, known as CREATE (Community Revenue Enhancement through Technology Extension), aims to benefit 20,000 local farmers and the surrounding community. “HEINEKEN is proud to be a leading party in the CREATE project,” says Johan Doyer, General Manager HEINEKEN Ethiopia. “We are committed to the African continent and aim to be a partner for growth for local communities.”