BACOLOD CITY — Tanduay Distillers Inc. (TDI), the diversified beverage company of taipan Lucio Tan, will release Bacolod-labeled rum for markets abroad, including the United States.
This was announced by the country’s top rum maker in the just-concluded first-ever Rum Festival, institutionalized in an ordinance to be held every third week of August in Bacolod.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Bacolod is honored to be included in a brand being distributed worldwide.
“This would strike the interest of the people in other countries,” Leonardia said in a statement on Tuesday.
The export product, which will bear a label stating it is processed and bottled in Bacolod, is expected be out in the market next year.
TDI will release an initial of 50 cases of Tanduay rum with the name of Bacolod in the label. It will be processed and bottled in one of the company’s distilleries located at the boundary of Bacolod City and Murcia town in Negros Occidental.
The rum maker has markets in at least five states in the United States, aside from the recently penetrated markets in Guam, China, and Australia and soon in some parts of Europe.
Leonardia said anything or everything that will positively project Bacolod City in the international level is “good”.
He noted rum festivals are celebrated worldwide, especially in rum-producing countries, thus it is high time for the Philippines to do the same.
“That was why, Bacolod took the plunge and staged its very own Rum Festival. The city is a natural habitat of festivals,” the mayor added.
In a statement, Paul Lim, chief marketing officer of Tanduay Distillers, said that through the rum festival, they paid tribute to the men and women who have made the sugarcane industry of Negros Occidental what it is today, adding they are a huge part in Tanduay’s success.
Bacolod is the capital city of Negros Occidental, the country’s sugar bowl.
Aside from giving toast to the humble sugarcane, the festival also celebrated the best of Negrense culinary arts, Lim added. -PNA
