FOREIGN EXCHANGE CRISIS DEEPENS
The Seychelles Breweries, which produces most of the beers and soft drinks consumed in
The government, in an election year has remained conspicuously silent on the issue saved to an extent by the official visit of the President Hu Jintao, of the People's Republic of
At the time of going to the printers, there were no soft drink products from the brewery on the market. This has come on top of the shortage of bottled water, which has come on top of a temporary shortage of milk, which has coincided, with a shortage of oil, timber, cement etc.
The shortage of bottled water has hit the tourism industry very hard as tourists prefer to drink bottled water, and in a very hot and humid climate, they consume a lot of it. The shortage is due to the lack of foreign currency to import the raw materials litres compared to 7,271,000 litres for soft drinks to make the plastic bottles. In 2005, the recorded production of bottled water was 4,379,000 litres compared to 7,271,000 litres for soft drinks.
Barely had the ink dried on the Seybrew advert than the SPPF, the ruling party in Seychelles, called an urgent meeting of all its activists and prospective candidates for the forthcoming National Assembly elections last Sunday, urging them to go out to the “community” and reassure the people that very soon all the shortages of essential commodities will be a thing of the past. The meeting was chaired by former President Albert Rene, who is still holding on to power as the president/leader of the SPPF party. Critics point out that, whenever Rene makes such a move, it is an indication that worse is yet to come.
Meanwhile, the legal President of the country, Mr Michel, after basking in the glory afforded by the Chinese President's choice of making little Seychelles one of its stops in its lightning tour of seven African countries, has left the country without making any statement about the shortages that's creating a certain air of panic in the caommunity. Mr Michel prefers to fly to