Barbados welcomes new rum agreement to produce “10 Cane”

The Barbados government has welcomed the agreement signed by Foursquare Rum Distillery to distill, blend and bottle a brand of rum known as “10 Cane’ which officials say is expected to rake in BDS$100 million (One Barbados dollar = US$0.50 cents) in foreign exchange.

“Rum is a distinct Barbadian product and I believe that we are the home of rum, and that is something that I don’t think we have fully capitalised on as yet. 

“There is still much more to be gained…I commend the Chairman and management of Foursquare Distilleries for their work in getting us to this point today where we can really boast and celebrate this new contract being worked out with Hennessy,” said Industry Minister, Donville Inniss.

Foursquare Rum Distillery chairman, Sir David Seale, said the agreement had been signed with Moet and Hennessy of France to distill, blend and bottle the new brand of rum over the next five years.

Sir David revealed that this particular brand of rum was first distilled, blended and bottled in Trinidad and Tobago.

“This is very exciting because this brand having been established world-wide, it has a track record so we are not starting from zero.  We are starting from a point that it is a guarantee amount that we can produce... Our sums will say that it is quite possible that we will earn in excess of $100 million in foreign exchange over the next five years.

“When we decided to build a distillery, we often said that we wanted to get into the export market in a meaningful way but we had no marketing funds to spend, so we felt that we would put in and put down a facility that when tourists and visitors came they can remember it. That is what is happening.

“The word of mouth advertising has led to a massive increase in the exporting of our own brands both to Europe and the USA…I can only imagine that Moet and Hennessy came here because they are satisfied that they are going to get a quality product.

“Once rum gets the real recognition it should get from the government of Barbados it has the potential of earning about BDS $500 million a year,” Sir David added.

Inniss said Barbados is not a low-cost location for manufacturing and as a result “we have to tap into the niche areas and rum is a product that is synonymous with Barbados and therefore, we have to exploit fully the rum industry. 

“This means of course, as has been done here at Foursquare, making use of an ultra-modern plant distillery and creating niche products … but of course that can help earn revenue for the company and foreign exchange for Barbados.”

 

(Caribbean 360)

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Date Posted

May 29 2013