Dutch brewer Heineken said on Thursday that it plans to double current production capacity at its newly opened Brassivoire brewery in Ivory Coast by next year with the aim of going head-to-head with French beverage giant Castel which currently dominates the Ivorian beer market.

Beer consumption in Ivory Coast has risen since the end of a decade-long political crisis in 2011. Castel dominates the beer market with its popular Castel, Flag and Solibra Bock brands.

Alexander Koch, General Manager of Brassivoire brewery said:  “We will invest 20 billion CFA francs ($35.49 million) by the end of the year…to double our capacity”.

“We had planned to make this investment between 2018 and 2019. But with the strong demand, we are doing it before the end of the year,” he said.

Total investment in the brewery is expected to reach 100 billion CFA francs ($177 million).

The investment will increase the brewery’s annual production capacity to 160 million litres by next year, which would be more than half of the country’s 270 million litres consumption that is currently being served by Castel from its Solibra brewery in Abidjan.

Heineken and CFAO, its French-based joint-venture partner began construction of the Brassivoire brewery in 2015 at a cost of $160 million (€150 million). The brewery was officially unveiled in April amid fanfare. Heineken holds 51% ownership of the joint-venture with CFAO holding the remaining 49%. Both companies have been partnering in other ventures in Africa for over 20 years, starting in Congo Brazzaville.

CFAO is a French-based company with operations in 34 African countries and French overseas territories. While the firm’s headquarters is in France, it is 97.5% owned by Japanese conglomerate Toyota Tsusho Corp.