National Rums in the fight of its life

National Rums of Jamaica Limited (NRJL) is staring down the barrel of possible closure if the recent ruling of the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) on what can be classified as Jamaica rum, stands.

The company has two months to appeal the decision handed down by the JIPO tribunal on October 2, which in effect, lays out the Geographical Indication of Jamaica rum, prohibiting ageing outside of Jamaica and stipulates that the word "only" be added to the description criteria, a change that now clearly bars ageing of the spirit outside the island.

In 2016, rum producers decided on a set of criteria for the definition of Jamaican rum as a GI, or geographical indication, with JIPOS assistance. The GI designation aims to protect the sector from counterfeiting by setting rules for making Jamaican rum.

The GI law is known more precisely as the Protection of Geographical Indications Act. The Jamaica Rum GI follows similar standards to those of the Jamaica Jerk GI. JIPO oversees both GIs, which were issued in 2016.

But for NRJL, the country’s largest exporter of rum, credited for earning roughly 30 to 40 per cent of the foreign exchange from rum, the ruling threatens to put it out of business.

“The worst-case scenario is the closure of the distillery,” Martha Miller, CEO of NRJL told Loop News.

“It will affect our ability to support the economy. We will be losing that foreign exchange and our ability to employ persons. If we can’t export rum, we can’t employ people,” she explained.

About 80 per cent of the rum produced by NRJL is exported. The GI therefore hinders the company’s ability to continue operating as it currently does.

“It will impact our customers that we are currently exporting to,” Miller said adding the company is exploring its options.

National Rums of Jamaica Limited trades in bulk rum, but it also distributes the Monymusk rum brand. The company operates two distilleries - Clarendon Distillers in Lionel Town and Long Pond Distillers in Clark’s Town, Trelawny.

Clarendon Distillers is the second largest distiller in Jamaica, Miller said.

Outside of employing 200 people, NRJL “spends hundreds of millions of dollars with local contractors annually to support our distilleries.”

“So, all of those indirect labour and contractors will also be impacted,” she said.

More broadly, she contends that Brand Jamaica will also be adversely affected.

“The ability to continue to grow Brand Jamaica through rum as it has been done for centuries will impacted,” she said.

“For centuries we have been exporting rum to the world and sharing Brand Jamaica. When it reaches overseas, they put it in a barrel and it is aged. This will now limit our ability to do so,” she said.

It is understood that some European rum producers have sought to age rum outside Jamaica while still calling it ‘Jamaica Rum’. The new ruling bars this practise.

“The tribunal wishes to make it abundantly clear that ageing should only be carried out in Jamaica and therefore amends the register to include ‘only’ before ‘Jamaica’,” the JIPO tribunal judgment read. “The register shall now read: ‘Ageing shall be carried out only in Jamaica’,” it said.