The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) and its allies have secured a favourable outcome in its two-year campaign for an exemption from new Indian food standards.

APTRA has learned that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has ruled that duty free shops at Indian airports and ports are to be excluded from new regulations regarding food safety standards. Today the exclusion has been implemented officially by customs officers across India.

Singh: ‘Differentiating duty free from the domestic market, establishing that it is a separate trading channel operating under specific international rules, sets an important precedent.’

A delegation led by the duty free and travel retail group and the International Spirits & Wines Association of India (ISWAI) met the Chairman of the FSSAI in Delhi in April to discuss the proposed regulations and to explain why duty free should be considered a separate channel and explicitly excluded from the proposed regulations.

In early June instructions were issued to FSSAI authorised officers and Food Safety Commissioners to the effect that duty free shops are to be exempt from the rules: officially that started from today.

TWO-YEAR CAMPAIGN

The outcome comes after two years of lobbying by APTRA and other parties: such as Bommidala, Delhi Duty Free, DFS, Diageo/United Spirits, Flemingo, GMR Delhi and Pernod Ricard. Fellow trade associations ETRC, DFWC, UKTRF and the ISWAI were also involved along with several non-duty free spirits associations, foreign trade delegations, and brand owners.

Jaya Singh, President of APTRA, comments: “The combined efforts of stakeholders in the duty free and travel retail industry, together with relevant duty free and liquor trade associations, have secured an extremely significant victory. Differentiating duty free from the domestic market, establishing that it is a separate trading channel operating under specific international rules, sets an important precedent.”