Branding local liquor can boost tourism, expand economy

Kathmandu, Aug. 13

Nepal imports alcoholic beverages worth more than Rs. 1.5 billion a year. However, illegal import and gifts could increase the amount. Meanwhile, 'Chyang' touted as indigenous alcohol is being imported from China and South Korea.

But producing alcohol other than for religious and domestic purposes is illegal in the country. Nepal police destroys millions of litres of home-made liquor every year in Nepal. For example, it destroyed 10,000 litres of illegal alcohol and 80,000 litres raw materials in Gadhimai Municipality in Bara district. According to the police, it had seized the items from various houses and taverns in Ward No. 3 and 10 of the municipality. Interestingly, police found concrete underground tanks with the capacity of about 12,000 litres especially made to store liquor at a house there.

Even in the Kathmandu Valley, police have repeatedly confiscated and destroyed tens of thousands litres of home-made alcohol.

While this tussle continues, indigenous communities have long been demanding to legalise the production of home-made liquor. In a progremme last week, representatives of indigenous women groups expressed strong dissatisfaction over the branding of local alcohol fearing that large corporations and multinational companies might hijack the traditional skill and knowledge from the communities.

The liquor making skill that we have now is being handed over to new generations since time immemorial, so the indigenous women should have exclusive rights to it, President of Indigenous Women Rights Forum, Suni Lama.

However, indigenous women suggested to provide the patent rights of local liquor to the communities, before branding the product. Otherwise, it will have a direct impact on the local economy, job creation and entrepreneurship.

They suggested creating an environment to promote micro-breweries in Nepal as a solution to expand the skills, market, entrepreneurs and local economy.

 

Chance to have Nepali drink

Many countries have made their beverages national drinks such as French wine, German beer, Scottish whiskey, Russian Vodka and Irish scotch. Likewise, Japanese Sake, South Korean Soju and Chinese Baiju have created their international identity as well.

Social Entrepreneur and cultural expert, Anil Chitrakar, warned that Nepal should pay attention to securing the intellectual property (IP) of the indigenous food, drinks and other items, including home-made liquor.

"We have seen western countries creating trouble in Basmati rice and turmeric. Western scholars have won global awards for their researches on Nepal's community forests," he said. "Hence, we must be aware to protect our skill and knowledge."

According to him, producing local beer and other types of alcohol was also a technique of utilisation of food that would be excessive and damaged. "It increases the utility of food and add value to the food grain," said Chitrakar.

But obtaining license for liquor industry is not an easy task. Federation of Liquor Associations of Nepal (FLAN)'s President, Sonam Sherpa, said that while obtaining a permission for alcohol production is an uphill task, fulfilling the quality, land and technological standards is highly difficult job.

Expressing concerns over losing the traditional knowledge on liquor production, Sherpa suggested to legalise micro-brewery in the country.

However, large distilleries and breweries would not be happy about creating many micro-breweries, he maintained.

Likewise, President of Liquor Association of Lalitpur, Upendra Lakhe, said that there is a need to manage the skills and knowledge in the production of local alcohol. "Newar community has a sort of expertise on some of the drinks," he said.

Newari drink Aila has become an indispensable item in Nepali food serving in the restaurants and hotels in the Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere while Tongba – a famous drink in eastern hills – is served as a special item as well.

Government initiative  

Then Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Mahesh Basnet (2014 September – 2015 October) was the first leader to initiate licensing to micro-breweries to promote indigenous alcohol.

In 2015, the government had decided to allow restaurants to establish micro-breweries to support the growth of tourism industry and offer varieties of beer and alcohol to tourists. Operators of micro-breweries would get a license for the production after depositing Rs. 200,000 and ensuring the sales of at least 2,500 litres annually, however, they could sell a maximum of 2.5 million litres of alcohol a year.

However, there was a condition that the liquor couldn't be sold outside the restaurant premises.

"The government then had made preparations to implement the decision while the National Planning Commission was positive and conduct research for the growth of the sector," said Maheshwor Neupane the then Director General of the Department of Industry, and former Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

But, due to the lack of system to monitor such breweries, the project couldn’t take off. Neupane said that the Inland Revenue Department presented excuse that it couldn't monitor the growing number of small liquor producers.

Micro-breweries to support tourism and economy

Secretary of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and a liquor trader, Santosh Pandey, said that the country should develop a system to promote, facilitate and monitor the micro-breweries in the country. "Licensing the micro-breweries would be a solution to curb the illegal and sub-standard hooch that is sold at local taverns in the cities and villages," he said.

He maintained that since the producers need to adhere to the clean and healthy production guidelines, they will maintain purity in alcohol.

There are many who are the connoisseurs of local wine and alcohol in cities and ready to pay a good amount to buy quality product legally.

"It can be a niche product that would attract the interest of high-end tourists as well," said Pandey.

Meanwhile, while experts say that the promotion of micro-breweries would help to create employment and develop the local economy, there are no estimates about the expected results.

However, it is true that the country is losing millions of rupees in revenue due to illegal production and trading of alcohol. "Once it is legalised, the country will earn a good sum of money in revenue," said Pandey.

But the Industry Ministry said that there are no preparations recently to reinitiate the process to licensing the micro-breweries. A high-official at the ministry said that there have not been any activity to patent the indigenous alcohol or branding it. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 14 August 2021.