Simonds Farsons Cisk plc has recently announced the development of a malt beverage with zero per cent alcohol. The product is being marketed under the Cisk brand name and has been developed exclusively for North African and Middle East markets. The company has indicated that the product's sales and consumer response following its launch overseas has been very encouraging.

Although the product's base ingredients such as malt and hops are the same as those found in regular alcoholic beers, in this case the beverage is produced and packaged before any fermentation takes place in order to ensure a zero alcohol level. Although the product cannot be classified as non-alcoholic beer, the Cisk malt beverage has been developed as a beer substitute intended for overseas markets where restrictions on the sale of alcoholic products apply.

A spokesperson for Farsons has commented that in view of Malta's geographic proximity to North African and certain Middle East markets, and the fact that the sale of non-alcoholic beer substitutes in these areas is a big and growing business, it was only natural for the company to tap into this opportunity.

The Cisk non-alcoholic malt beverage is presently packaged in 33cl cans but the company has plans to also package the product in 33cl glass bottles in the not too distant future. Moreover, if sales in the Middle East and North African markets continue to grow, the company also has plans to introduce a range of flavoured, non-alcoholic malt beverages in peach, lemon and raspberry.