A company based in South Africa is close to launching a Tequila-type drink on the international market as supplies of the Mexican original continue to be scarce.


The drink, which will be marketed as an Agave-spirit, is owned by a company called Agave Distillers. Agave is the plant from which Tequlila is produced. Agave Distillers cannot call its drink Tequila because it is a protected name of origin from a designated area in Mexico.


However, a delegation from Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council, visited South Africa last month to discuss possible cooperation with Agave Distillers.


“We are now on the cusp of a major international thrust and the outlook is monumental,” Keith McLachlan, the chairman of Agave Distillers, told the SAPA news agency.


He said he had had unprecedented interest, in particular from the US, which is the biggest tequila-consuming nation in the world and who are facing a shortage of the product.


Agave Distillers launched its brands of agave spirit in November last year. And it already exports to Australia, Madagascar and the Seychelles.

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