Pressure and fiscal instability in Vanuatu could not allow a Vanuatu beer company to invest on its can production line in Vanuatu because the can production line alone is costly.

The cost of production alone by Vanuatu Brewing Ltd (VBL) appropriately VT125million ($F2.47m).

However, Tusker beer can is now available in Vanuatu, but is manufactured in New Caledonia.

Economically speaking, the Vanuatu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) says it is a lot cheaper to produce brewery products abroad than in Vanuatu.

“The VBL has been producing its Tusker can abroad because of a few issues in which two are mentioned above and are yet to be addressed by the Vanuatu Government,” VCCI said in its newsletter.

“If the VBL is to relocate its entire operations abroad by mid-year 2016, the consequences in terms of employment and other factors would be huge.

Jobs will be lost and the Vanuatu Government would lose a lot of revenue through taxes.”

“The trade imbalance would therefore grow larger. It is therefore important that to secure continuous employment for the local workers, local manufacturing companies such as the VBL needs to be supported, protected and promoted.” Apart from national icons such as the Tanna Coffee and the others, Tusker is one of the few products that carried the Vanuatu brand and has the potential to be widely distributed within and outside the Pacific region.

Some countries such as Bali where tourism is their main revenue, it says are so proud of their national icons.

“These countries have understood the positive interactions between their tourism industries and their national icons.”