Thursday, March 28, 2024

Manuka needs a touch of Scotch

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Scotland’s success in protecting its Scotch whisky has lessons for New Zealand’s manuka honey industry. Richard Rennie spoke to Scotch Whisky Association lawyer Lindesay Low who says just putting some collective clout behind a brand can make trespassers back off.
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Manuka producers wanting to protect their valuable honey from charlatans and imitators could find inspiration over a wee dram of Scotland’s national drink.

Thanks to a well-resourced legal team led by litigation lawyer Lindesay Low, the Scotch Whisky Association has proved its worth many times over to its members in identifying and dealing with those trying to leverage some brand mileage off the country’s unique whiskies.

He spoke recently to attendees at a manuka honey symposium looking at options for protecting the honey’s integrity.

When the association was set up more than a century ago its purpose was to control the supply and even the price of Scotch whisky.

“Over time that role has obviously changed. Today the association works to strike down trade barriers, offer guidance on the regulatory environment and is the guardian of the vital legal protections Scotch whisky has around the world. 

“That role was recognised as a job for more than one company to protect the industry’s intellectual property,” Low said.

He is in a team of five lawyers engaged full time in a global mission to identify any breaches of Scottish whisky’s certification trademark, with its specific requirements around how Scotch whisky is produced and how it can be marketed.

It’s a broad brief and a dream job for a litigation lawyer who enjoys whisky and one that has kept Low busy for all 18 years he has been in the job. 

It’s a job his wife spied in a Sunday paper and told him he’d be ideal for it. He acknowledges he brings a certain level of quiet pride to it.

“You take it for granted when you are bought up in Scotland and if you enjoy whisky it makes the job easier and certainly enjoyable.”

He fully appreciates the value to his homeland in protecting the geographic integrity of whisky. 

There is a strong symbiotic relationship between Scotch whisky and the country where it must, by law, be produced. Scotch whisky is woven into the fabric of Scotland and the industry helps to attract tourists from all over the world.

And, he says, you do not need to go far to see what failure to protect geographically defined food brands does.

Cheddar cheese is an example of a product that was far removed from its native Cheddar and paid the price as a commodity food product today.

“Cheddar in Somerset was where the cheese was from but now it can be made anywhere. It’s a commodity compared to a value product with our whisky.”

At any given time Low and his team will have about 60 major cases on their files, requiring visits to courtrooms and corporate offices around the world.

“We certainly write a lot of cease-and-desist letters but also work opposing trade marks that are potentially deceptive and litigate on products that are not what they claim to be.”

Policing the integrity of the brand has had him and his team visit every continent and many countries including India, China and Nigeria in recent years.

It is a role member distilleries are well prepared to fund, recognising the £4 billion worth of business the Scotch whisky identity earns them, equivalent to the value of that other significant geographic beverage, French Champagne.

The association’s role as watchdog and compliance adviser to its members has become even more critical as the Scotch whisky industry enjoys a resurgence, thanks to a new generation of middle-class consumers seeking quality beverages with unique taste and provenance attributes.

“It’s been a team effort from the industry, too, with the member distilleries producing some fantastic brands while having that strong legal basis behind them has given consumers’ confidence about what they are buying.”

In its 100 years the association has dealt successfully with thousands of cases of companies trying to capitalise on the power descriptors Scotch and whisky – as well as taking action when rogue traders use Scottish iconography in a bid to fool consumers.

The range of breaches and rip-offs Low and his team deal with are as wide as the world. 

His work can involve not only investigating a product falsely claimed to be Scotch but also products that have false Scottish connections in their branding or marketing purporting a product is from Scotland.

Indian brewers have been pulled up on mixing bulk Scotch whisky with a local brew, which is legal. But claiming the brew is Scotch whisky is illegal. 

“The areas of the world presenting problems come in peaks and troughs.

“China used to be a major area for us for work but we have found in recent years we are able to manage it better. 

“Newer markets of Nigeria and Mexico are proving very busy now.”

Low sees some interesting comparisons between New Zealand’s manuka honey sector and the Scotch whisky industry in terms of brand protection and provenance. 

“There are a lot of parallels there between the two countries. 

“We have a very small-scale agricultural sector operating in challenging agricultural conditions. We can’t compete on scale with the big countries for production so the way to do so is to produce high-quality products that people are prepared to pay a lot for.”

He notes manuka honey has a huge reputation in Europe for its quality and health benefits. 

Despite the $300 million manuka sector being a sliver of the £4b Scotch whisky industry, Low believes there are good grounds for honey producers to pursue a strong, well- resourced defence of their product.

“We speak to a lot of sectors who tell us we are lucky being in a sector that is so large. But we encourage them to get all their members on board, to do what they can and develop a good legal framework. 

“If you do, those trying to rip off your product will tend to back away quite quickly.”

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