PANJIM: The lockdown has effectively locked up the feni industry of Goa, which is a Geographical Index (GI) tagged heritage drink of the State. The entire season, which is attached to an agriculture produce – the cashew apple – has gone awry as no production or sale has taken place since March 22 this year.
With the month of May already here, the season for production of feni has ended, as the cashew apples have dried up. While the industry, which is not streamlined, barely generates Rs 5-6 crore of revenue for the State but the livelihood of at least 3,000 bhatikars are at stake.
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Cashew Fenny Distillers and Bottlers Association of Goa president Gurudatt Bhakta believes that the liquor industry has to be opened up now. “We have also suffered a lot as we get cashew apple only during this season. We gave a representation to the State government, but since feni does not come under the Essential Commodity Act, we are not allowed to either produce or sell,” Bhakta said.
This is endorsed by Hansel Vaz, another distiller who said, “The season has already been lost but the lesson learnt from this lockdown is that the feni industry needs to be streamlined to make sure production numbers and quality are water tight. Secondly, the industry itself collectively needs to generate more VAT or revenue for the government and billing should be done in a proper manner.”
There are more lessons for the industry from this lockdown. Bhakta said that the State government should think differently and out of the box to leverage the ‘heritage drink’, which is facing a huge problem in competition with IMFL. “In fact, it is the best time to promote feni as it is a heritage liquor and its GI tagged for Goa and revenue is coming when all the wells of revenue generation has dried up,” Bhakta said.
But, the immediate issue is selling the available stock. Tukaram Haldankar, a distiller, is waiting for government permission to release the stock produced before March 22 and lying in the distillery. “The loss incurred is difficult to gauge but it is the best time promote feni. This year is going to be a very bad year for us. We have some of last year’s stock left because the sale dipped drastically last year. Since tourism is also closed, the sale of feni will naturally come down. Most of the local people are now relishing IMFL and not feni,” Haldankar said.
Mac Vaz, founder president of the association, brings a different perspective to the debate of opening up the liquor industry. “History of prohibition has proven that the more you make it difficult to procure alcohol legally the motivation to procure from illicit sources gets force multiplied. This illicit source, does not generate revenue for the State,” Mac Vaz said.
Ironically, neighbouring Maharashtra has allowed the wine industry to operate and it is done only because the industry is very well regulated.
Only recently, the feni industry had been jolted by the State budget with a tax introduced on the MRP of the heritage drink to regulate the industry. There was opposition to this from all quarters, and there has been no notification on the tax, so it remains unimplemented.
