Small-cap distillery shines spotlight on India’s growing power in the world of whiskey

NEW DELHI: A small-cap distillery, whose shares have nearly quadrupled this year, is helping shine a spotlight on India's growing power in the world of whiskey, as a producer as well as a consumer, according to a media report.

Piccadily Agro Industries Ltd has surged by its daily limit in two sessions this week after its single-malt Indri Diwali Collector's Edition won top prize at the Whiskies of the World Awards. The stock is now up 292 per cent so far in 2023 with the push from the result of the annual US-based competition, Bloomberg reported.

While the beverage more typically conjures up images of Scotland or Ireland, so-called 'New World whiskies' have been making inroads by winning critical and commercial praise. At the same time, rising prosperity has helped demand surge in India, making it the world’s largest whiskey market at about $18 billion a year, according to data from Statista.

“It is an exciting time for India, and Indian whiskies are not far behind as we are playing our part in the India story,” Siddharth Sharma, founder of Piccadily Distilleries, said in a statement, Bloomberg reported.

The South Asian nation’s whiskey makers still face challenges including outright alcohol bans in some states and heavy regulations on raw material procurement and distribution. The industry is susceptible to whims of state government taxation policies, especially around elections, as whisky is seen mainly as a drink for the elite, the report said.