• IMPORTS: China has lifted the last non-tariff barrier for the importation of premium tequila -made with 100% blue agave sugars- creating the prospect that exports to the Chinese market will double in the next five years, Mexico’s Regulatory Tequila Council (CRT) said.
• BARRIERS: Starting in 2015, exports of so-called 100% agave tequila (produced in the Tequila area of western Jalisco state) were blocked by China arguing problems with its coloring which caused imports to dive from around 2 million liters in 2014 to only 200,000 liters in 2018.
• EFFORTS: “Several efforts were made for many years, four, five years. We were fighting using Chinese laboratories and also with the support of (Mexican) laboratories and the Mexican authorities themselves and we finally achieved it”, said Ramón González an official at CRT.
• COUNTRIES: Overall, Mexico exported a record of 222 million liters of tequila (either mixed or 100% agave) to 120 countries around the world in 2018; however, the US is way ahead as the main destination for tequila exports with a share of 82.5% of total (183 million liters).
