SINGAPORE - Food and beverage giant Fraser & Neave (F&N) is re-entering the Myanmar's beer market after a four-year absence.

The Singapore company has pumped in $70 million to set up Emerald Brewery in Yangon with local partners, according to a company statement on Wednesday (Sept 25).

Media reports last year stated that F&N's partner in Myanmar is Shwe Than Lwin, which imports motor vehicles, construction goods and heavy machinery into the country.

The two companies had secured a licence from the country's investment commission to make and distribute beer then.

The facility has started brewing and marketing beer under the Chang brand, one of Thailand's most famous beers, the statement added.

The brewery is expected to produce 500,000 hectolitres of beer a year that will be packed into five formats - 330ml- and 500ml-cans, and 320ml- and 620ml-bottles, as well as 30-litre kegs.

Mr Koh Poh Tiong, chairman of the F&N Board executive committee, said at the brewery's first canning ceremony in Yangon on Wednesday that the company's investment reflects the potential it sees in Myanmar.

"We have worked swiftly to build our new brewery, operations and business; and are confident that our two decades' experience in Myanmar will propel our new venture forward," he said.

F&N entered the Myanmar beer market in 1997 when it bought a 55 per cent stake in Asia Pacific Breweries.

Asia Pacific Breweries had set up Myanmar Brewery with MEHL, a Myanmar army-linked organisation, in 1995 to make Myanmar Double Strong and Andaman Gold beer.

F&N then left the Myanmar beer market in 2015 after a two-year dispute with MEHL over how much the Myanmar organisation needed to pay to buy out F&N.

MEHL wanted F&N's stake in Myanmar Brewery for US$246 million (S$338 million), while an independent valuer estimated that it was worth US$560 million.

The sale was completed at US$560 million.