There is no beer on… Zanzibar – why the holiday island is running out of alcohol More than 100,000 dolphins are killed every year

“There is no beer in Hawaii.” More than sixty years after German pop singer Paul Kuhn first sang these lyrics in 1963, thousands are still waving them in festival tents around the world. However, it never made sense, because around 1900 the first brewery opened its doors in Hawaii.

However, the text currently applies to another holiday island – at least almost. Because as the BBC reports, alcohol is currently becoming scarce in Zanzibar. The reason: at the beginning of this year, the Zanzibar Liquor Control Board (ZLCB) no longer renewed the licenses of the three established alcohol importers.

Although the authority has granted licenses to three new companies, they are apparently still in a lengthy assessment process and therefore cannot meet demand. Supply chains have been disrupted for days and tourists on the 'Spice Island' off the east coast of Africa are high and dry.

Because Zanzibar's 1.3 million residents are 99 percent Muslim, local production of alcohol is prohibited. So you are, for better or worse, dependent on imports from mainland Tanzania and South Africa. This situation is now becoming a problem for the island as 90 percent of Zanzibar's foreign income is generated through tourism. About 630,000 visitors were registered last year.

The alcohol crisis has now become so severe that the price of a cold drink has doubled. According to the BBC, a glass of beer on the island now costs two dollars; a year ago the price was one dollar. Many hotels along the famous Matemwe beaches may even no longer serve alcohol at all. Instead of cocktails and beer, soft drinks and coconut water are now served.

Bar and hotel operators are threatened with serious financial losses. "We're running out of beer, I've only got one stock of soft drinks," one bar owner told the BBC. 'The government must act. It's high season now, it's very hot and these tourists need luck, they need cold beer on these beaches."

The alcohol shortage is hitting a large part of the population hard, Frank John Kahamu of the regional distribution company Amani Alcohol Merchants Union tells the Tanzanian newspaper 'The Citizen'. He fears that many people could lose their jobs: “Amani alone has more than 3,000 people working in bars, both employed and self-employed. If this continues, layoffs are inevitable. We cannot continue to pay wages if the shelves are empty.”

Issa Mahfoudh Haji, a foreign ministry official responsible for the ZLCB, told state media that they had heard of the complaints and would investigate the problems. It is currently being clarified whether the alcohol shortage is directly related to the resignation of former Tourism Minister Simai Mohammed Said.

Zanzibar's President Hussein Mwinyi indicated at the swearing-in of the new Minister of Tourism that Said may have had a conflict of interest. A relative of the former tourism minister is reportedly linked to one of three alcohol importers whose licenses have not been renewed. (pre)