24 Sep 2021  |   04:12am IST

It’s a very long road ahead

The Feni policy has been notified but it is obvious a lot needs to be done on the ground if the association’s dreams of an increase in the popularity and sale of the product have to be achieved
It’s a very long road ahead

Team Café

The time has come for Feni,

that most Goan of drinks to be promoted aggressively to ensure that sales increase. To that end, the government could consider selling it at duty free shops starting with the Goa airport and at the cruise liner port. This was articulated by members of the Goa Cashew Feni Distillers and Bottlers Association as they met yesterday to hail the notification of the Goa Feni policy 2021.

Hanzel Vaz, Founder Cazulo Premium Feni said the promotion of the category could do wonders for the state. Speaking on the sidelines he said if the popularity of feni increases that would then mean the growing of more trees. He said “These trees don’t need water, pesticide and importantly no animal will attack it. It is a exotic plant which originally came from Brazil” he went on to say that from the point of sustainability it was the best crop to grow. He said it was a double cash crop, whereby one could make money from the nuts and then from the feni. He said in Goa, there was always a discussion about land, the trees he said could be cultivated on the sloping hills and this would begin the process of afforestation and add economic value substantially. A farmer he said could plant and would have to wait for the tree to grow in five to seven years. He cited the example of Europe where the cultivation of grapes increased dramatically as the value of wine increased over a period of time. So, he said in the same way if the price of feni increased, people would be interested in cultivating more.

When asked how the association intended to increase the consumption of feni he said every menu in Goa seemed to be awash with scotch, gin and other drinks and it was glaring that feni was missing. That he said had to change. He said “We need bartenders, F&B managers promoting it and the way to do that was through cocktails. That was how gin moved up in popularity.” He then pointed out that culinary institutes in Goa did not teach its students how to handle feni. Hanzel said he was shocked to learn that Goa University had a module to learn how to make wine, this in a state where grapes were not grown. He said he was now conducting guest lectures at the Agnel Ashram and IHM so that students could learn what to do with feni.

He said it was important to remember that when a cocktail was consumed in Calangute, families in Valpoi would benefit directly and this was very important to realise in the feni business. This transfer of wealth he said was very important.

Hanzel ended by saying GTDC ought to help them to promote the product internationally. He said “If they have a show or a promotion, feni should be present and importantly members of the association should be present to talk about the product and not some Russian or any other person from where the show was being conducted.”

At the press conference Gurudatta Bhakta, president, GCFDBA expressed their gratitude to chief minister, Dr Pramod Sawant for initiating the notification of the ‘Goa Feni Policy, 2021’ and also the Late chief minister Manohar Parrikar for initiating the ‘Feni Policy’ and former CM Laxmikant Parsekar for giving feni the status of ‘Heritage Spirit of Goa’. He also complimented commissioner of excise, Shashank Tripathi, for paving the path for stakeholders to chalk out a roadmap for feni and former commissioner of excise, Menino D’Souza for initiating this process.

Bhakta thanked the team of Levisions Martins and Deepak Parab of the department of science and technology for initiating a geographical indication (GI) status for cashew feni. He said, “The GI is an intellectual property right (IPR) provided by the Government of India to protect cashew feni and its stakeholders from any attempt to infringe, appropriate or dilute the status of cashew feni as the ‘Heritage Drink of Goa’.

Speaking on the occasion, Hansel Vaz, secretary, GCFDBA said the feni industry directly injected revenue to all of Goa’s rural and marginal farmers and hinterland communities who operated without any government support or subsidy. “The present prevailing system is unique to the world and exclusive to Goa and allows communities to themselves remain self-sufficient by adding value, skill upgrade and reducing farm waste through cashew distillation. This approach is in sync with the prime minister’s philosophy of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India)” Vaz said.

Tukaram Haldankar, treasurer, GCFDBA sought the support of the state to help in exporting, Goan cashew feni to other countries and states within India. “The state government must create a sponsored initiative to promote feni as the ‘state drink of Goa’. We want to take our Goan feni to the world” Haldankar said.

They all bemoaned the fact that some parties in the industry were selling fake stuff in the market that could end up destroying the category. Mac Vaz of Madame Rosa and founding President of The Goa Cashew Feni Distillers & Bottlers Association said this was a serious challenge which had to be tackled.

This is possibly the last pre industrial drink still being made in any part of the world and as the world moves increasingly towards mechanization, this still remains a handmade product which can be sold at a premium. One can perhaps wish them all the very best.

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar