IN THE WORLD OF diplomacy and international trade, China, the world’s most populous nation, should be listened to.
So when Dr Chelston Brathwaite, Barbados’ top diplomat to the Asian giant, told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY the other day that his birthplace should be doing more, much more, to boost its rum trade in China, it was clear he understood what Barbados should do to get the job done.
With Barbados’ slice of the lucrative United States rum import market under severe threat from the US Virgin Islands controversial practice of subsidising rum exports to the American mainland, Brathwaite’s insistence that his island nation should focus more of its attention on the Chinese market makes a lot of sense.
“One of the areas of trade that I would certainly flag is the need to look at the possibility of exploring the China market for the sale of our rum,” the former Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture director general said.
“We have had a few initiatives so far designed to get our rum into China. For example, there is a small initiative in Hong Kong where Barbados rum is being sold by Remy Cointreau which is part of the Mount Gay Rum empire, but I think much more can be done in terms of the promotion” of Barbados rum.
But are the 1.3 billion souls scattered across China keen on drinking rum? Although the jury is still out on that question because of the absence of solid market analysis, the ambassador said that limited indicators suggest that China can become a solid market for Barbados.
“Wherever we have served Barbados rum in China, people find it an interesting drink. Just recently we had the 48th anniversary of Barbados’ Independence and in that ceremony we invited Remy Cointreau to partner with us and they brought a significant amount of Barbados rum. Before the night was out it was all finished,” Brathwaite said.
“Clearly, there are opportunities, and given our challenges in getting rum into the United States, it would be in our strategic interest to begin to look at the Chinese market.”
There are some things to ponder when considering rum into China in sufficiently large quantities to make economic sense. One of them is the simple fact that China is quite a distance away from Barbados. Secondly, also true, unlike the US, where Barbados rum has a long history of being consumed, more than a century, the Chinese don’t have any tradition of imbibing that alcoholic drink.
But what’s also true is that more than 200 million Chinese can afford the expensive taste of Bajan rum. What about the hurdle of getting the rum from the Caribbean to the Asian economic giant? Brathwaite, who recently completed his life story, a memoir, Ten Defining Moments: An Extraordinary Journey, argued that pragmatism can overcome whatever transportation hurdles rum producers and exporters may face.
“We have a significant number of Chinese shipping products to Barbados and those containers which take Chinese-made goods to Barbados should go back with something in them”, was the way he put it.
“I see no reasons why we shouldn’t take advantage of two-way trade. After all, there are products being shipped to Barbados all the time. Why can’t we be putting rum in the containers when they are going back?”
Already, he pointed out a small group of Hong Kong businesses is shipping rum from Barbados to China and there is little reason why more can’t be done.
“I don’t know about major challenges. Yes, there are challenges but they are not unsurmountable,” the ambassador argued.
He is among seven heads of Caribbean diplomatic missions in Beijing – the others are Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, The Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana and Jamaica – and he is convinced Barbados must first decide how it intended to export rum to China and once that decision was made it could set about getting the product there.
As Brathwaite sees it, if Chile can get its wines to China, Barbados should be able to export its rum there in large quantities as well.
“When we talk about distance and shipping our products to China we have to be aware that one of the countries in the Western Hemisphere has done a tremendous job in getting Chilean wine into the Chinese market.
“They are now the third most widely consumed wine in China. France is the first and Australia is the second. We know where Chile is and if they can get their wines into China I can’t see any reason why we can’t get our rum there as well. Chile is much farther away than we are,” he said.
In the end, it boils down “to strategy, organising and doing the homework, the analyses and market intelligence in penetrating new markets,” he said.