BELGIUM: EU to meet October 9 on Vodka War - but do consumers really care what vodka is made of?

Europe's drinks industry will meet October 9 to try and end the bloc's so-called vodka war as the European Parliament begins debating rules that could strip the name vodka from some products. Existing European Union regulations allow vodka to be made from any agricultural product, but a group of EU countries led by Poland and and the Nordic nations want to tighten the rules to exclude vodka derived from grapes or sugar. Reuters television performed its own unscientific taste test in the shadow of the European Parliament to see if EU drinkers could determine what different vodkas were made of. Few felt confident enough to say. The European Vodka Alliance (EVA) is campaigning to keep the definition wide. Referring to consumer research by Taylor Nelson Sofres conducted in 2005 within the EU the EVA says "only 1 percent of vodka drinkers refer to "what it is made of" as being a relevant consideration". In other words they argue that the ingredients used in the making of vodka are largely irrelevant. What is important, the alliance argues, is the vodka's production process including multiple distillation and/or carbon filtration. On the EVA's side is the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands. The UK, in particular, said earlier this year that restricting the range of raw materials that could be used to make vodka would hamper innovation in the sector. It added that such restrictions could also land the Commission with another battle at the World Trade Organisation. Different countries have also been using different raw materials to make vodka for some time. These include wine grapes, which are used in Cyprus, Hungary and Bulgaria, and were more recently taken up by drinks giant Diageo for its Cîroc brand. "A statistical analysis of the findings shows that in fact people were guessing and something like 15 percent of guesses were correct, but that is what we would expect, statistically from blind guessing. Since we did that ourselves, it is probably open to criticism because it was done by a partisan group but recently the BBC did a much more objective survey using experts and came up with precisely the same result and we would rest our case on that. People simply cannot tell what the raw materials from which a vodka is produced," said Chris Scott-Wilson, lobbyist for the European Vodka Alliance. That was pretty much what Reuters Television found as well among the smattering of Irish, Austrian and (none-EU) Canadian tasters willing to take part in the test. The Vodka Alliance says their research shows that 2/3 of EU vodka tasters tested didnt' know what vodka was generally made from. With the exception of Poles. Jaroslaw Wesolowski of the Polish Mission in Brussels and who sits on the wine and spirit committee says that's because of his country's long standing tradition of making vodka out of potato and cereal. His country wants to impose a sctrict policy in vodka production to ensure quality and high standards for the consumers. He says it should be "a spirit drink produced from ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin". Otherwise what's to stop producers from making a spirit out of wood-shavings, labelling it as vodka and making a lot of money out of consumer's trusting ignorance. Poland's allies in this bitter vodka war are Finland - who produce Finlandia- Sweden - who have the well known Absolut brand - and other traditional vodka producers in the Baltic Sea. Finnish MEP Alexander Stubb's argument is that vodka should come under the same strict rules for the sake of quality but also equality. He says Scotch whisky production is strictly controlled and so should vodka production. However he does seems willing to compromise by allowing vodka made from non cereal and potato products like fruit for example to bare the name 'vodka' but only if the raw materials are clearly listed on the label as well. "Vodka could be made from all agricultural materials and it is not good because you don't know what it is, really, raw materials. It could be some by-products or waste," said Jaroslaw Wesolowski, Polish Spirit Specialist. "All that they need do is to define what their vodka actually contains in slightly bigger letters. So in the future you would have a vodka label which would say that this is fruit vodka, so if they don't trust their product to be drunk after it this broader definition and bigger text on the label, then I don't think there should be a problem," said Finnish MEP Stubb. So whilst Sweden, Poland and Finland fight it out to protect their vodka industries against the rest, one question remains: do the world's consumers really care? The European Parliament's food safety committee held a first discussion on the legislation on Wednesday (October 4). But it may take some time before we find out if the EU will choose the purist - and protectionist - argument of the few - the EU's Nordic, Polish and Baltic countries - or the profit of the many who represent 10 percent of vodka production today.

ITN Source | October 7, 2006

Tags:. .impose. .socalled. .belgium. .polands. .ourselves