Good news from the city of Harbin, which has had water shut down to its 3.8 million residents due to a chemical explosion upstream of its water supply. The massive slick of benzene polluting the Songhua river has not had any significant impact on beer production.:

Harbin Beer claims to be China’s oldest beer - a Russian businessman founded China’s first brewery in northeast China in 1900 - three years older than German’s Tsingtao Beer.

Harbin Brewery had been listed in Hong Kong and was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, which defeated SABMiller, in 2004.

    Anheuser-Busch …… said the water shutdown had not significantly affected its beer production in Harbin and that it was providing some of its supplies to Harbin’s citizens.

    "The city of Harbin asked our support in supplying fresh drinking water from the wells used at our two breweries to citizens, which we are doing at both breweries, as well as through supplying mobile tankers that will … deliver fresh drinking water," it said. (Financial Times)

Perhaps AB calls it corporate responsibility. In a city with 3 millions population in the urban area, I call it spectacular PR stunt.

AsiaPundit agrees that this will be great PR for Anheuser-Busch, although the damage to the Harbin brand elsewhere may suffer if the city becomes associated with a dangerously polluted water supply. For those interested, Harbin has continued to make tasty beers in spite of the AB acquisition.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, harbin, northeast asia