Trade Currents

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Trade Currents

In the old days, explorers and merchants used the ocean currents and trade winds to navigate from one place to another. Considerable amount of trade is still done this way today, even though shipping vessels also rely on internal combustion engines to make the journeys faster and more efficient. Trends and fashion were, in the early days of trade, also shared and propagated this way.

Today we have the internet as a faster, sometimes instantaneous way of sharing thoughts and opinions that may lead to trends.

I am writing these lines while in Madrid, Spain, where I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot recently about upcoming regulatory changes that apply to the alcohol beverage industry in the European Union. Some of these changes to CE 110/2008 will, inevitably, reach the shores of the United States of America, where authorities, both fiscal and alimentary will evaluate their relevance. I believe many of these changes are intrinsically good, but others have me a bit worried.

Among the former, the increased granularity in the use/mention of geographical origins is one that I believe will add clarity into a murky environment. Among the latter, I am concerned about the desire to use non-carbohydrate based sweeteners, such as steviol (E 960), whose long-term impact has not been fully studied, especially in the world of alcohol beverages.

But just like in the world of fashion and trends, there is very little governments can do to stop the proliferation of information and opinions, such is the nature of an interconnected global society. Consumers are speaking loudly about the use of sugar in everything from carbonated sodas to distillates, and this is one way the industry and the authorities are responding by adjusting the regulations.

Will rum consumers develop a preference for the flavor of artificial sweeteners over that from rum’s raw material, the sugarcane? Just like with fashion, only time will tell.

Cheers,

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher