A Scottish MP has urged prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to protect and stress the importance of Scotch whisky in his negotiations with China this week.
Following last week’s announcement that Diageo is planning to close the visitor centre at Clynelish Distillery, Jamie Stone, MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, has written a letter to Starmer calling for the UK government to protect Scottish whisky in its negotiations with China.
Starmer is flying to China today (27 January) for a three-day visit where he will meet with the nation’s leaders in Beijing, marking the first time a British leader has visited the country – home to the second-largest economy in the world – in eight years.
Clynelish’s closure is indicative of the significant pressure the Scotch industry is under, and Stone believes there is a ‘huge opportunity’ to sell its whisky to a ‘vast market’ in China. He hopes a favourable trade deal can be negotiated.
Stone met with a member of Diageo’s corporate relations team yesterday (26 January) to discuss the visitor centre at Clynelish. “It was about visitor figures having dropped, about how much more sales have dropped,” he told The Spirits Business, adding that tariffs have also become a particular concern. “It’s a real shame that whisky has got caught in the crossfire on that particular issue,” Stone said about the Airbus and Boeing spat, which caused a trade war between the EU, the UK and the US from 2019.
The UK and the US agreed to suspend retaliatory tariffs for five years in 2021, a deal that could come to an end in “a few months’ time, which is unhelpful”, said Stone.
Stone’s letter to Starmer comes after the MP asked Diageo what he can do to encourage the visitor centre’s reopening in the future and help “alter the climate” for Scotch: “I wrote to him, saying: ‘In your many negotiations with China, would you please remember Scottish whisky?’ With 1.4 billion people, there’s a huge market out there. They [Diageo] were saying to me if we get the Indian deal sped up, and we get China, that would really help them massively.”
‘Concerns our country as a whole’
Clynelish’s visitor centre in Brora employs six people, with Diageo saying it’s working to find positions in its distilleries for those whose roles are being made redundant. Stone said he “will be checking in on the progress of this matter”.
Stone said: “In a remote part of the UK, such as Sutherland, every job counts. In the Highlands, the Scotch whisky industry is a significant employer, and employment is what keeps our country ticking.
“That is why I’ve raised this issue with the prime minister ahead of negotiations in China. It is about employment and prosperity in the far north, but it also concerns our country as a whole.
“My hope is that the visitor centre can reopen in the future. But for now, a favourable trade deal for the Scotch whisky industry will be a significant step in the right direction.”
Starmer has previously pledged to “fight tooth and nail” to protect Scotch whisky.
The value of Scotch whisky exports fell by 3.7% to £5.4 billion (US$6.7bn) in 2024 compared with 2023.
Exports by volume, however, were up by 3.9%. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) attributed this to changing trends in consumer preferences and a ‘challenging trading environment’.
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