Cuba expects to sell four million cases of rum in 2011

Cuba expects to sell four million cases of rum in 2011

Havana, April 12 (IANS) Cuba expects to sell four million cases of its
flagship rum Havana Club in 2011, despite a US decision not to renew its
marketing license in the country, president of the state-owned Cuban Rum
Corporation said here.

'The Cuban industrial capability is at a very high level,' president of
the Cuban Rum Corporation Juan Gonzalez said, adding they expected rum
exports would reach more than $100 million in 2011.

Arian Remedios, legal advisor of Havana Club International, said the
company sold 3.8 million cases of rum in 2010, a growth of 14 percent
over the previous year, reported Xinhua.

A US federal appeal court in Washington decided last week not to renew
the marketing licence of the Cuban brand in the US, which was acquired
by Cuba in 1976, due to the embargo against the island which has been in
effect since 1962.

However, the Cuban government said the sentence favoured the US Bacardi
Rum group.

The French group Pernod-Ricard and the Cuban Rum Corporation, which
formed the joint venture Havana Club International, have been fighting
with the Bacardi group since 1994 for the license of selling the Havana
Club brand in the US market.

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