NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have begun his India visit in a dry state but whisky is likely to figure in the trade talks between India and the UK.
India is the largest whisky market in the world and Scotch whisky manufacturers have a 2 per cent share in the Indian market. Yet the value of Scotch whisky sales to India has risen from below £60m in 2011 to more than £150m in 2019.
They are looking at increasing their market share to 6 per cent which would be possible only if the 150 per cent tariff levied on them is removed to make it affordable.
"Launching UK/India trade talks offers a golden opportunity to reach an ambitious tariff reduction in an early harvest deal that could grow Scotch whisky exports to India by £1 billion over five years," said Mark Kent, the Chief Executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, the trade body that represents the Scotch whisky industry.
"It would also be good for our industry and Indian government tax revenues – a win-win for all,” Kent says, adding that India is their priority market.
The state revenues in India could increase by £3.4 billion annually through an increase in sales, claim British whisky manufacturers.
Interestingly, when Boris Johnson was the foreign secretary (May 2017), he landed in trouble when he mentioned whisky exports to India during a visit to a gurudwara in Bristol. He said there was a possibility of increasing exports of Scotch whisky to India after Brexit, with the signing of a free trade agreement.
A lady took offence to his mention of alcohol on the premises of the gurudwara, for which Johnson apologised.
However, he went on to explain that he was married to a woman of the Sikh religion (his then wife Marina Wheeler was writer Khushwant Singh’s neice) and all his relatives wanted him to bring Scotch whisky to India, which was expensive due to high tariffs in India.
Johnson had travelled many times with Wheeler to India along with their four children.