UPDATE 2-Chile brewer CCU to cut investment 50 percent in 2009

* CCU to slash investment in half * Shares rise 0.6 percent (Adds fresh quotes)

By Rodrigo Martinez

SANTIAGO, April 20 (Reuters) - Chile's largest brewer, CCU CCU.SN, said on Monday it plans to invest around $70 million in 2009, half the level of the previous year, as the global economic crisis saps demand and the need for increased capacity.

The company invested around $140 million in 2008.

"We are going to invest less than we invested in 2008, around $70 million, when last year we invested around twice that figure," Chief Executive Patricio Jottar told reporters after a shareholder meeting.

"The investment is basically in packaging, in execution at the point of sale, reducing costs and spending and meeting environmental norms," he added. "In a scenario in which it is harder to make volumes grow due to the international crisis, we do not today need to make investments in capacity."

CCU, or Compania Cervecerias Unidas SA, said this month its sales volume rose 3.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 7.5 percent year-on-year increase in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Argentina, which accounts for about a quarter of consolidated volumes, saw a 31.5 percent jump in beer sales during the period, while Chilean wine exports rose 29.3 percent, CCU said at the time.

The company reported a 10.6 percent rise in year-on-year sales volume in 2008.