Low-alcohol liquor from fruits soon

No plan to scrap decision: Minister

November 13, 2019 06:09 pm | Updated 06:09 pm IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The State government does not intend to go back on its decision to allow the production of low-alcohol beverages from fruits, Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan informed the Assembly on Wednesday.

Their production would, in fact, help to bring down consumption of hard liquor, he said in a written reply to the House.

The decision to allow the production of low-alcohol liquor and wines was taken on the basis of a recommendation made by the Assembly Subject Committee VII (Economic Affairs) and a consequent report submitted by the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), the Minister said.

Development of such value-added products from fruits, including cashew, mango, jackfruit and banana, would serve to enhance the income of farmers, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

Moreover, the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) were already selling beer and wine which were low in alcohol content, he said.

The State government had issued orders on October 26 for amending the Abkari Rules for enabling the production and marketing of low-alcohol liquor from fruits.

To a related question, the Minister said that consumption of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), excluding beer, has risen by 2% each in 2016-17 and 2017-18 over the previous fiscal and by 4% in 2018-19 over 2017-18. Beer sales, on the other hand, witnessed a 5% rise in 2018-19 over the previous fiscal. But sales had dipped by 23% in 2017-18 over 2016-17.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.