Excise department order allowing bakery to stock, sell hortiwine lands UDF government in controversy

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government on Sunday hastily sought to distance itself from a politically controversial Excise Department order allowing a bakery in Chalakudy, Thrissur, to stock and sell hortiwine, a mildly heady 15% proof alcoholic beverage brewed from agricultural produce other than food grain.

Officials told The Hindu that Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan had raised red flags about the “unconsulted” order, which allowed the bakery to buy several cases of hortiwine from the Kerala State Beverages Corporation’s (Bevco) bonded warehouse for off-the-shelf sales in the run-up to the Christmas-New Year season, raising the spectre of unregulated underage drinking and also blindsiding the government as it reworked Kerala’s liquor policy.

Subsequently, Excise Minister M. Liju revoked the licence and sought a report from the Excise Commissioner. Mr. Liju later told reporters that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had amended the Foreign Liquor Rules in 2024 to allow bakeries, supermarkets and shopping malls to display and sell hortiwine for an annual licence fee.

“On the face of it, the Excise Department had issued the licence as per the prevalent rules. However, the decision prima facie infringed on the government’s prerogative to frame policy. The government has taken a serious view of the faux pas,” he said.

Former Excise Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat member M.B. Rajesh termed the government’s backpedalling “a political stunt to draw applause and a sign of administrative dysfunction bedevilling the UDF.”

He said the LDF government had promulgated the Kerala Small Scale Winery Rules in 2022 to legalise the production of hortiwine as a value-added product to help farmers get better prices for their produce, chiefly jackfruit, banana, pineapple, mango and tender coconut. Mr. Rajesh said the LDF subsequently amended the Foreign Liquor Rules in January 2024 to allow bakeries to stock and sell hortiwine.

“However, the LDF government did not issue a single licence to enable the sale of hortiwine through outlets without a foreign liquor retail licence, given the social sensitivities involved,” Mr. Rajesh said.

Notably, in June 2026, the UDF government had similarly strayed into a socio-political minefield by batting in the Budget for the sale of low-proof starter drinks, or alcopops — fruit-flavoured, ready-to-drink canned soda containing a small percentage of alcohol.

The move had drawn criticism from the Church and Muslim social organisations. Congress leader and prohibitionist activist V.M. Sudheeran had demanded the rollback of the “unconsulted” budgetary proposal.

Various Left-leaning toddy workers’ unions had also objected to the proposal, claiming that alcopop sales would sound the death knell for the ailing traditional sector.