Government targets $1 billion from export of Made in India spirits

Globally, 'New World whiskies' are increasingly finding critical praise and commercial success, including from Indian distilleries.

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Sensing a huge revenue opportunity from export of Indian alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, Centre has asked Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) to increase exports of Indian Spirits to major foreign destinations.

APEDA is targetting $1 billion in export revenue over the next few years in this segment. Setting the stage, Godawan Single malt whisky, an artisanal single malt made in Rajasthan is set to be launched in the United Kingdom. The first batch of Godawan was flagged off to the United Kingdom by Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Commerce Secretary, along with senior officials Debra Crew of Diageo Plc and Hina Nagarajan, MD & CEO, Diageo India.

Globally, 'New World whiskies' are increasingly finding critical praise and commercial success, including from Indian distilleries. Last year, Indian single malt brand Indri, made by Piccadily Distilleries earned a place among the best whiskies in the world.

A booming demand has made India one of the largest whisky markets in the world at $16.8 billion a year, as per Statista. "Indian whiskies are not far behind as we are playing our part in the India story," said Siddharth Sharma, founder of Piccadily Distilleries. Shares of the company have seen a three-fold just this year alone. Shares of Som Distilleries shares are flat for the year, while Radico Khaitan is 20 percent, and larger player United Spirits is up by 15 percent YTD.

This rising interest comes at a time when major alcobev companies Pernod and Diageo are making a greater push into the Indian market, to tap into India's premium spirits market. The Asia-Pacific region has overtaken the European Union to now become the largest importers of Scotch whisky.

Scotch accounts for only 2 percent of India’s whiskey segment, but it is one of the largest export destination for the alcoholic drink in volume terms. As per Statista, France is the leading market for export of Scotch whisky at 174 million bottles, followed by India with 167 million bottles.