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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2007 
Mexico's Tequila Industry Battles Knockoffs
 Sergio Solache & Chris Hawley, USA Today
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| | Phony tequila is displayed before being destroyed by police in Zacoalco de Torres, Mexico, on March 2, 2005. Tequila makers say they have seen a surge in fake tequila in recent years. (Mexican Tequila Regulatory Council) |
Mexico City — Mexican tequila makers are battling a surge of knockoffs as distillers worldwide try to make a profit off the drink's growing popularity.
The imitators range from sugarcane moonshine made in Mexican garages to quality spirits made from agave plants in South Africa, Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council says. The group says it is mobilizing lawyers to defend tequila's good name.
While some consumers may not know, or care, if they're getting an impostor, Mexican producers are concerned that the drink's image could eventually be damaged by subpar products. Tequila was once the drink of Mexican peasants, and tequila makers spent decades and millions of dollars in advertising to get it into fine restaurants and trendy discotheques.
"These phony products are a cancer that affect us all," said Floriberto Miguel Cruz, chief of the regulatory council's quality-control department.
A proliferation of counterfeit tequila in the past six years "endangers the consumer, the product and the image of the country," Miguel Cruz said. Though sales have not yet declined because of the knockoffs, tequila makers are afraid they might, he said.
"If you drink a phony product and it makes you decide never to buy a tequila ever again, then the popularity that tequila has achieved could decline," he said.
The tequila council said it has no documented cases of anyone being poisoned by fake tequila. But some of the knockoffs are made in garages or basements and could be contaminated with oil or cleansers, Miguel Cruz said.
Liquors contaminated with wood alcohol can cause blindness or brain damage, he said.
Mexico and 26 other countries, mostly in Europe, have signed a treaty that protects the name tequila. Under that pact, known as the Lisbon Agreement, only liquor made from blue agave — a desert plant with long, sharp spines — can carry the name, which comes from a town in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. The liquor must contain 51% agave.
The same treaty says only wines from France's Champagne region can be called champagne and only wines from Spain's La Rioja region can be called Rioja.
The United States has not signed the treaty but protects the tequila name under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. In return, Mexico recognizes Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as American spirits.
In the past decade, the popularity of tequila has soared, thanks in part to heavy advertising by the José Cuervo brand in the USA.
Exports of tequila nearly doubled from 1995 to 2005, from 16.7 million gallons to 32.1 million. Three-quarters of that went to the USA. "It's a drink that became famous and attractive for being wild and exotic," said Jorge Larsson, a tequila industry consultant in Mexico City.
The Mexican government now recognizes 735 brands from 118 companies. But the drink's success has attracted copycats. "Whenever there is a popular drink, the entire world tries to imitate or copy it," said Juan Casados Arregoitia, president of Mexico's National Chamber of the Tequila Industry.
In September, the Mexican Justice Department seized more than 23,000 gallons of fake tequila in Jalisco state. The Mexican Consumer Protection department has banned 41 brands of counterfeit tequila.
Fake brands included Salvaje (Savage) and El Valiente (The Brave One), which the Tequila Regulatory Council ruled to be types of rum. Others, like El Trailero (The Trucker), were mainly spiny agave liquor, also known as mescal. One brand of "tequila," Monte Alban, even included a worm in the bottle — something that only mescal bottlers do.
The Tequila Regulatory Council said it has found fake tequilas across South America, Europe, Australia and the USA. In Britain, one company even put the tequila name on bottles of paint thinner, the council said.
To fight counterfeiters, the tequila council has hired detective firms to comb bars and grocery shelves worldwide, Miguel Cruz said. When they find knockoffs, the council contacts Mexican embassies, foreign governments and law firms to put pressure on the producers.
Complaints from the Mexican government forced a South African company, Agave Distillers Limited, to stop using the tequila name for the Agava brand liquor it began producing in 2002. The company acknowledges Agava is a tequila lookalike.
In Mexico, the council has begun certifying bars and restaurants with the "T Seal," a plaque saying that they serve only real tequila. About 50 businesses have gotten the seal.
Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic |
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