Cheers to the finest whisky, it's Indian

Recognition last month for an Indian whisky brand, Indri Diwali Collector’s Edition 2023, at the Whiskies of the World Awards, a yearly international tasting competition, is timely. India last year replaced France as the largest importing nation of Scotch whisky. These imports represent a fraction of Indian whisky consumption and consumers are pushing premiumisation at a frantic pace. Global market leaders Diageo and Pernod are growing fastest in Asia, which is poised to topple Europe as the biggest market for whisky exports. Indian brands doing well alongside other Asian distillers could break the dominance of Europe and America, where whisky consumption has plateaued.

A relatively new malt produced in Haryana trouncing around a hundred competing brands from across the world has a spillover effect on exports by other domestic brands. It taps into the global marketing effort to make people pay more for their whisky. Since the fastest-growing market is at home, the hurdle for Indian distillers is less daunting than the one that vineyards in the New World had to once overcome against the dominance of Europe. Today, Californian wine shares top shelf with French vin. India is negotiating an FTA with Britain, and local distillers are making use of the runway to establish themselves with global buyers. This exploits a reluctance by global brands to set up production facilities for export of premium whisky made in India.

India is the second-largest exporter of whisky by shipment and its imports of Scotch are mainly in bulk for blending. This presents an opportunity to our distillers to increase value addition. It also offers improved market access to small distillers. Lower tariffs on imported malts could make the industry more competitive. Just as there is room for bottled Scotch sales to grow in India, there is space for Indian whisky on British store shelves. A clutch of plucky local distillers are showing market leaders how to go about it. And this can bear valuable lessons for other high-end, luxury Indian products as well.