FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
VIKANT SAHAY
Panjim: The liquor industry unexpectedly performed quite well and as against expectations, they did extremely well during the month of November this year. This was despite the fact that the footfalls of tourists to Goa are still not yet ‘normal’ as compared to the previous year due to the COVID pandemic.
All Goa’s Liquor Traders’ Association President Dattaprasad Naik believes that the collection in November till now, has been better than last year. “The quantity of sales is not much but there is surely a quality sale. People are now buying premium and more expensive stuff from the market and we are already feeling the shortage of high premium liquor as supplies are slow. Hence, collections are high even though we are not selling out in volumes. People are not travelling internationally and hence they are not buying from duty free shops but are buying from stores.”
Similarly, Goa’s leading Feni producer from Goa in the name of Cazulo Premium Feni, Hansel Vaz had predicted the “W” graph growth but at the same time fears that the liquor trade may see the “M” graph if the pandemic situation is not handled carefully by the authorities.
Speaking to Herald, Hansel revealed that their bigger customer base is now the tourists visiting the State.
“From April to August we were hardly doing 15% sale which was very distressing. I categorise my buyers as Indians and Goans. Surely Indians coming from Mumbai, Delhi etc are buying high quality ultra premium and expensive liquor than Goans. In fact, the sale to Goans has gone down. In October we did not do much volume sales but very high value stuff. It was probably that people wanted to break free from so many restrictions all around. Also, those who are getting cheaper holiday offers from five star hotels are now coming to the store to buy high-end liquor. In fact, they are spending more on the streets of Goa than ever before.”
President of the Goa Cashew Feni Producers, Distillers and Bottlers Association, and also proprietor of Cazcar distillery Gurudutta Bhakta told Herald that, “the business was down by 60% after the reopening of lockdown. Only after the tourists started coming to Goa, the sales improved. It is now gradually the market is picking up. I cannot say whether the sales have gone up against last year in November as it did not happen with us. In fact we are looking for that. There are too many restrictive moves by the authorities for the tourists to get encouraged to come to Goa. It has to be balanced correctly.”
