Japanese wine Sake (Nihonshu 日本酒) to flow smoothly in India as import restrictions removed

Sanjeev K Ahuja On Jun 14, 2022

Japanese brewers serving Sake to Indian at Japan Embassy in New Delhi in 2019.

NEW DELHI: Sake drinkers in India have a reason to party as the Indian government has simplified the import procedures by allowing Japanese wine import without the mandatory Certificate of Analysis (CoA) – a statutory requirement imposed in the year 2019.

On Wednesday, India’s food and beverages regulations watchdog agency Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) agreed to revoke its own directive that earlier made Sake importers to produce Certificate of Analysis (CoA) from an ISO 17025 accredited labs for testing of imported proprietary foods including wine from Japan.

Interestingly, Japan does not have ISO 17025 accredited labs for the requested parameters by the new CoA regulation, and this caused severe difficulty in importing Sake from Japan to India directly. Resultantly, Sake was being imported into India in a limited quantity from Japan via other countries.

Officially known as Nihonshu (日本酒) in Japan, Sake is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting Japanese rice that is polished to remove its bran.

Hidehito Jay Araki, Advisor, EIJ Consulting with a wide range of Sake products at the Japan Embassy in New Delhi in 2021.

Now, the Embassy of Japan in India has reached an agreement with the FSSAI regarding the procedures to import Sake from Japan to India without the need for CoA. As per the FSSAI directive issued on October 11, 2019, the Sake importers were required to submit CoA issued by ISO 17025 accredited labs from January 1, 2020 onwards.

The Embassy, with the cooperation of the National Tax Agency of Japan, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, and other related parties, negotiated with the FSSAI to resume imports of Sake smoothly.

The Embassy informed that the FSSAI and the Embassy agreed that the FSSAI will allow the importer to import Nihonshu, that is one of the GI registers of Sake in Japan, from Japan, provided that the importer should submit certain documents to the FSSAI as a part of the clearance documents at the clearance.

These documents include Embassy’s request letter, Provisional English translation of the public release of GI “Nihonshu” in Japan, CoA issued by any entity, not necessarily by ISO 17025 accredited lab, and clear mention of the range of alcohol percentage of the product.