Source: https://www.rte.ie/
By Joe Mag Raollaigh
Irish whiskey is a unique product. Protected with EU Geographical Indication status, it must be distilled and matured on the island of Ireland.
Since 2010 its popularity has soared around the world with global sales up 180%.
The industry sells 14 million cases annually and directly employs 1,700 people in 42 distilleries on either side of the border.
It is an all-island industry, greatly aided by the open border and the existence of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“We operate as a single industry across the island, that means we have integrated supply chains with movements across the border every day of the week,” according to Director of the Irish Whiskey Association William Lavelle.
“We operate on the same labelling rules, the same rules for Geographical Indication and it’s really important keeping that integrated single industry.
“The Protocol is very important for protecting that. We want to make sure we don’t have regulatory divergence, that we operate the same rules North and South and that we avoid any new tariffs or trade barriers both cross border on the island of Ireland and also potentially between the island of Ireland and Great Britain,” he adds.
At the moment, distilleries North and South work together, buying raw whiskey off one another, maturing it and sometimes moving it again for bottling and sale. Malting barley used for brewing all comes from Ireland. Barriers to that trade will hamper the industry’s development, according to Mr Lavelle.
Another matter of concern for the Irish Whiskey Association is what will happen to whiskey that contains blends from Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“Ireland is famous for its blended whiskey and about 10% of blended Irish whiskey sold around the world has components distilled in the North and the South. We want to protect that.”
John Teeling is chairman of the Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk which distills and sells raw whiskey to distilleries in Northern Ireland and across Ireland.
He foresees paperwork and hassle if there is a sundering of relationships between the EU and the UK over British unilateral action overriding the Protocol.
“We supply liquid to most of the distilleries in the North. We make it in Dundalk and then ship it either as new fill…and they mature it in the North or we mature it …and then ship it for them to blend, bottle, package and export it,” he explains.
“The biggest worry is the uncertainty. Uncertainty is never very good and so if they abandon the Protocol entirely and there is a breach between the UK and the EU you will likely have tariffs. You would not like that because for the longest time there has been free movement up and down,” he says.
For the moment the Irish whiskey industry is continuing in growth mode. That is the way they want to keep it whatever the British government’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill brings.