NATIONAL RUMS of Jamaica (NRJ) is preparing to appeal the recent decision by the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) to bar it from ageing rum outside of Jamaica and still call it “Jamaica Rum”, but there are early indications that the parameters which rum producers must meet to use the Jamaica Rum designation for their products under the Geographical Indications (GI) Act (2011) will need to be strengthened.

The indication comes from Clement “Jimmy” Lawrence, chairman of the Spirits Pool Association Limited, in the aftermath of the decision handed down last week by JIPO which not only blocked NRJ’s push to vary the parameters that must be met for the Jamaica Rum GI designation to be used on products made from rum it sells to overseas customers that are aged in those countries, but also tightened the restrictions on how the rum must be produced to use the designation.

“Geographic indicators do ultimately need to be strong and to be supportive of the designation,” Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer before adding, “As a matter of fact, our GI is going to need to be strengthened rather than to be diluted.”

Asked to elaborate, Lawrence argued: “Ultimately, when it gets to getting into Europe, and because of the experiences and practices in Europe, they want for a GI to be stronger than even what we have. We have an approved GI now that this party has applied to vary which would essentially weaken it… now when it comes to applying to get into like the EU…they have their own parameters and I suspect that they would want strengthening on what we have. However, the UK may be fine with Jamaica’s current GI for rum. “

A similar argument was made in documents filed by the Spirits Pool Association in the case, but NRJ said it “cannot support the concept of a stronger GI.”

Lawrence said the four-year battle to vary the Jamaica Rum GI has delayed the implementation of plans the Spirits Pool Association had for marketing the product.

“We have been down a long road, the challenge has disrupted what we wanted to do in terms of promoting the GI to the benefit of the country and the brands, because if we had gone on, we could have been doing better marketing, which could improve taxation for the country and revenues for the companies.”

The Spirits Pool Association, is a limited liability company that provides oversight and management within Jamaica’s rum industry and is owned by National Rums of Jamaica, New Yarmouth Limited, Trelawny Estate Limited, Inswood Estate Limited, Clarendon Sugar Company Limited, Hampden Estates Limited and J Wray & Nephew Limited.

NRJ which owns the Monymusk and Long Pond brand rums, made an application to JIPO in December 2020, seeking to have the GI for Jamaica Rum that was registered in 2016, varied to include rum aged overseas and to allow for distillation to be done using “wash produced with water obtained from the water basins of Jamaica” and for the rum to be aged in large food grade wooden barrels and vats instead of the small wooden oak barrels that the act recognises for the designation.

On the matter of producing rum using “water obtained from the water basins of Jamaica,” the NRJ argued in its application that with climate change, it could find it harder to access water from acquifiers in which water is filtered by limestone and so wanted the sources to be varied and could include in the future, filtered seawater.

However JIPO in its ruling said for rum to be designated “Jamaica Rum” it must only be aged in Jamaica in approved food wooden grade barrels not exceeding 250 litres. The ruling also said at the end of distillation “nothing should be added to rum save and except for pure filtered water and cane sugar caramel for the sake of colour correction”. It also rectified the geographic indication (GI) register to limit fermenting agents used in the rum ageing process “to the cultured and commercial yeasts of saccharomyces types, schizosaccharomyces species or naturally occurring yeasts in the environment” while prohibiting genetically modified yeasts but has allowed locally grown bacterial and yeast cultures in the production of Jamaica Rum.

The ruling did not find favour with NRJ.

Martha Miller, CEO of NRJ, said while she respects the ruling, it could have dire implications for her company and by extension, employees and the communities in Clarendon and Trelawny where the company distills its rum, especially the ruling which bars it from having its rum aged overseas and still be called Jamaica Rum.

“These products have always been put in a container and shipped overseas and aged overseas. Now our concern is that our inability to no longer do so could lead to the end of that business and that means US$30 million through the door for Jamaica. It could mean no employment for 200 people. It means that Lionel Town (Clarendon) and Clarks Town (Trelawny) and surrounding communities, and several families will no longer have an income and we have several suppliers who we spend significant sums of money with on an annual basis…so it could be a significant blow,” she pointed out.

Miller said that is because NRJ which produces between “eight million and 10 million litres of rum per year” exports about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the product, mainly to Canada, UK and EU where it is aged and bottled under brands such as Myers rum and Captain Morgan’s Dark (this is different from the Captain Morgan’s rum produced in US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) that are sold chiefly in Central America and Europe. She said the company has been exporting its bulk rum for decades to be aged overseas and these are normally designated as Jamaica Rum, but now she wonders what will happen now with that the requirement now that only rum aged in Jamaica can use that designation.

“These are brands (Myers and Captain Morgan’s Dark) that are known worldwide as Jamaica Rum and the inability to now call them Jamaican Rum could have a significant impact on their desire to purchase the product,” she argued. The company’s Monymusk and Long Pond branded rums which are aged and bottled in Jamaica are not affected by the ruling.

Still, under the ruling, NRJ has 24 months during which time producers of genuine aged and unaged rum stored overseas to apply for certification of their products as being complaint with the Jamaica Rum GI. This certificate of approval is to be issued by the Spirits Pool Association Limited.

But Lawrence is adamant that the ruling is the right one.

“This whole pursuit, certainly is not an exercise of any adversarial position, it is strictly points of view and the only way to have an appreciation of it is to understand what the GI is there for and what it is meant to do. The GI isn’t for Appleton and National Rums and Everglades and Worthy Park to benefit as the primary intended beneficiaries. It is there to provide benefit for Jamaica Land We Love and once that designation is there from a geographic standpoint in terms of those parameters, then the respective companies or brands can utilise that benefit, and can exploit that from a marketing standpoint.”

Lawrence argued that without the tighter rules, anyone can age rum anywhere and call it Jamaica Rum.

“To the extent that we open it up, open it up, where, yes it can go to France and age, yes it can go into any barrels, yes it can use any water, and broaden the parameters, if we designate that as Jamaica Rum, what would stop anybody from ageing rum outside of Jamaica or using any water and call it Jamaica Rum.”

Lawrence’s indication about registering the GI in the EU was supported by Richard Seale, CEO of the Barbados-based Foursquare Rum Distillery who took an interest in the application by NRJ and the ruling from JIPO as he pushes to have a similar Barbados Rum GI to protect the spirit produced in his country.

“We support all of the efforts of all the West Indian islands to secure protection for their rums,” Seale told the BusinessWeek.

“It’s good to see Jamaica suceed in protecting its rum, it can only help us. St Lucia has now registered its GI. Demerara has not only registered its GI at home but also in the EU. Jamaica has registered its GI and now can hopefully go on and register it in the EU,” Seale noted.

He questions whether the push by NRJ to have JIPO designate rum aged outside of Jamaica with the Jamaica Rum GI is being pushed by Maison Ferrand, a French company that owns one third of NRJ through its March 2017 acquisition of West Indies Rum Distillery of Barbados which owns NRJ given that the company, under its former Managing Director Evon Brown, who was chairman of the Spirits Pool Association in 2016, signed on to the original filing and registration of the Jamaic GI in 2016.

“After the change in ownership at NRJ, perhaps just a coincidence, but they suddenly had an epiphany and decided that the GI, of which they signed on, is bad for them,” Seale observed.

The other two-thirds of NRJ is owned equally by the Government of Jamaica and Demerara Distillers of Guyana.

“Considering the importance of protection, it seems inconceivable that anybody would delay protection based on trivial things, idiotic things like seawater and vats, because that is what had happened, but the good news for Jamaica is that the Jamaica IP office ahs made a decision to the challenges which we must admit wss done in a novel way to not bring a lot of attention.”

But Miller rejected the assertion.

“I want to be very clear that the matter of rum and the GI is a matter that is of concern to the management and staff of National Rums of Jamaica… people who are paid by the National Rum of Jamaica. The main reason we are purusing this is the preservation of the business,” she told BusinessWeek.

“We want to be able to have our customers classify there product as Jamaican Rum as they currently do.”

As for Seale, he is hoping that the “important victory” secured by the Spirits Pool Association could hasten his own country’s push to have a Barbados Rum GI.

An application was filed in 2016, but that has “languished and has been ignored” and which he said “there is no secret that it is not supported by West Indies Rum Distillery,” emphasising his belief that the company is also behind the action of NRJ.