Lower excise duties on liqueurs in Madeira and the Azores to stay

Despite a low rate of excise duty for local products, their market share has been lower, and the prices higher, than those of similar products from other parts of the EU. In Madeira local products take 20.3% of the market, in the Azores 38.9%.  This is mainly because raw materials such as sugar cane, fruit, plants, honey, cream, milk and wine are dearer in these remote regions than elsewhere.

The local industry employs around 130 workers in Madeira and around 90 in the Azores. In Madeira, the cultivation and processing of sugar cane and fruit provides work for around 1,000 family-owned agricultural holdings. According to the European Commission, without the reduced duty, higher retail selling prices would threaten the survival of the industry.

Under the EU Council decision approved by Parliament, the Portuguese government will continue to have the right to apply reduced excise duties in Madeira on locally produced and consumed rum and liqueurs, and in the Azores on locally produced and consumed liqueurs and fruit brandy.

A similar derogation applies to the production of traditional rum in the French Overseas Territories and to the Canary Islands. The rates of the excise duty are re-examined every two years.

(source Europaisches Parlament)