Editorial | Real Jamaican rum

The Gleaner endorses the decision by a tribunal of the Jamaica Intellectual Property Organisation (JIPO) that reinforces the geographic indication of “Jamaica Rum” as a product exclusively manufactured and aged in the island.

We also support the tribunal’s adherence to the existing code that wash – the fermented liquor containing alcohol – from which Jamaican rum is distilled must be with water obtained from the island’s limestone aquifers. We accept the insistence of the rum producers that this retention is important for the characteristics of Jamaican Rum.

But this matter, we believe, goes beyond that assertion of a set of principles of what defines the geographic designation of a product. It suggests the need for Jamaican authorities not only to be vigilant, but also perhaps to establish guardrails when certain types of national champions – having been formally designated as such – fall to external ownership.

To be clear, this is not an argument against foreign participation in or ownership of Jamaican companies. Far from it!

However, there may be circumstances where the national interest requires corporate compliance with some policy/operational dos and don’ts that are not totally unlike what happens with public utilities.

In the case of rum, the island’s industry was largely settled on the geographic indication of the Jamaican product on the basis of a 2016 registration with JIPO on the initiative of an industry body called the Spirit Pools Association (SPA).

OVERHAUL OF DEFINITION

More recently, however, National Rums of Jamaica (NRJ) attempted to achieve through a substantial overhaul of the standing definition through a process called rectification: fixing things that were left out or clarifying positions.

Among other things, National Rums wanted the geographic designation of Jamaican aged rum expanded to include rums aged overseas under appropriate and Jamaican-directed supervision. Currently ageing must happen inside Jamaica, exclusively monitored by the Excise Office under the Excise Duty Act.

NRJ claimed that where the rum is aged is not what is critical, but the process of fermentation and distillation. Important industry figures, including renowned Master Blender Joy Spence, disagreed.

Ms Spence argued, for example, that rums blended in Scotland take three times longer to develop the same flavour profiles as rum blended in Jamaica.

With respect to NRJ proposal for an overhaul of vessels in which rum can be aged – National Rums wanted food-grade barrels or vats of any size, rather than “small oak barrels – Ms Spence said that ageing in large containers also takes longer and impacts on the rum’s profiles.

In the end, the tribunal ruled that ageing can indeed happen in food-grade barrels of no more than 250 litres.

While there were other significant elements in the ruling by JIPO’s deputy director/legal counsel, Shantel English, what is especially notable about the case is that National Rums is a member of the SPA and the claims by other members that it was part of the discussions prior to the SPA’s application for the registration. They claim it never disagreed with the provisions.

JOINED THE DISPUTE

Indeed, lawyers for the rum distiller, J Wray and Nephew, a SPA member which separately joined the dispute as an interested party, contended that National Rums only showed disquiet only after it was “acquired” by Maison Ferrond, a French Cognac producer which also owns a rum manufacturer in Barbados.

Insofar as has been publicly disclosed, Mansion Ferrand, through its Barbados rum subsidiary, owns a third of National Rums. The Jamaica government’s SCJ Holdings (which formerly owned sugar factories and estates) and Demerara Distillers of Guyana, each own a third.

J Wray and Nephew is owned by the Italian drinks company, Groupo Campari. Implicit in the observation, it seems, is that Maison Ferrand hoped, through National Rums, for a free hand in where Jamaican rum is aged and, presumably, bottled.

The contrast to that, apparently, is that Campari isn’t of that mind and sees value in Jamaican aged rum undergoing that process entirely, and exclusively inside the country.

Indeed, in 2019 J Wray and Nephew’s former executive chairman, Jimmy Lawrence, in his role as the head of Jamaica Rums and Spirits Trade Association highlighted the introduction of a geographic indication as an important protection of “our coveted products … from interlopers”.

This newspaper appreciates those concerns. There are many examples of first with no association to Jamaica attempting to appropriate the mystique of the island’s brand.

In that regard, Jamaican producers of iconic and unique products might consider, where practicable, doing the work qualify for geographic indication so as to reap the benefits of what makes the association with Jamaica special. The government as part of a larger industrial policy should facilitate such projects.

Further, when foreign entities become owners of uniquely Jamaican products there should be a commitment to robustly maintain the integrity of the brand.