Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has re-launched its civil case against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, teaming up from the start with Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg, to scupper any further defence that the EU had no substantive complaint against the tobacco firms.…

BY MONICA DOBIE AND ALAN OSBORN
FOR many, the big development in the cigar business this year is Cuba’s decision to start manufacturing and exporting mini Havanas. All the famous names – including Montecristo, Romeo e Julietta, H Upmann, Jose el Pidra, Partegas and Punch – are now available in mini form.…

BY MONICA DOBIE AND ALAN OSBORN
IMPERIAL Tobacco Canada has devised a way of targeting smokers through direct mail advertising, without breaking any of the strict regulations imposed by the federal government’s anti smoking advertising laws.

Popular brands of cigarettes like Du Maurier Light have included stickers on the packets with toll free phone numbers and a message saying “Make the call, come on board.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, Canada
THE WEATHER has been very kind to wine producers in Ontario this summer; they predict that their grapes will be of extremely high quality due to a Canadian heat wave in July and August. The sun shone on the vineyards more than 36 days consecutively, making wine grapes shrivel, becoming sweeter and more concentrated with flavour.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve a wine trade deal struck between the European Commission and Croatia. If it is accepted, it will lead to the mutual liberalisation of import and export quotas, the lowering of tariffs and the joint recognition of protected names, such as geographic indications.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
THE SOUTH African agriculture and land minister Thoko Didiza has urged wine growers in the Western Cape to embrace automation in the industry, to deal with the loss of low paid labourers who have left the region’s agricultural industries since the onset of black majority rule in 1994.…

Keith Nuthall
ADVICE on how to create integrated pollution control policies within breweries has been included in a comprehensive EU report on limiting the impact of the beverage and food industries on the environment. The report drew upon research covering eastern European countries hoping to join the European Union, as well as existing Member States.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
MEXICO-based Grupo Modelo is launching its flagship brand Corona in India this year, with its international market coordinator for the Asia-Pacific region claiming that the beer will be as successful as it has been in China. Linares Fernando told the Indian press that annual Chinese sales are approaching one million cases.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve another Balkans wine trade deal struck between the European Commission and, this time, Macedonia. If it is accepted, it will – as with the recent deal with Croatia – lead to the mutual liberalisation of import and export quotas, the lowering of tariffs and the joint recognition of protected names, such as geographic indications.…

Keith Nuthall
What now for the “Havana Club” rum brand name after this month’s

ruling by a panel of the World Trade Organisation in the dispute between

the European Union and the US ? Both sides have claimed a victory of

sorts out of the split ruling, though both agree the struggle is far from

over.…