MEXICO

Tequila Sunset – 9’35”

September 2001

0.02 Just another Tequila sunrise.

0.06 And the famous brand distilleries are right there in the streets of the little Mexican town which gave the drink its name.

0.15 The alcohol produced here is the real thing. Anything else is a pale imitation.

0.26 The sleepy streets of Tequila are a vivid set for a Mexican movie.

0.33 The old mescaleros dream on in the Plaza, eyes bleached blue like agave cactus.

0.38 It’s not a place for sweeping changes. And there’s a certain comfort in the presence of the past here.

0.50 In a cobbled street, only blocks from the plaza, is the home of one well-known brand.

0.57 Sauza has been distilling tequila here since 1873. And the mural in their courtyard shows just how it used to be done.

1.09 Then as now, the juice with the magical properties was squeezed from the agave cactus.

1.17 And the Bacchanalian consequences of imbibing it, gave tequila its special reputation.

1.25 But while demand for the fashionable liquor has soared worldwide, the central ingredient itself has become scarce.

1.34 These huge plants look like giant pineapples once their spiral of thorny leaves has been removed. But these days they’re in short supply.

1.45 In the past ten years, the number of distilleries has grown from thirty-two to over seventy.

1.54 But a large percentage of the agave crop was wiped out in 1997 by a combination of bad weather and a deadly fungus.

2.05 Now, it’s a seller’s market and the price of agave has risen by over eight-hundred per cent in recent times.

2.16 The manufacturers are in a dilemma.

2.21 Under Mexican law, to earn the name ‘tequila’, the liquor must contain more than fifty-one per cent agave.

2.30 But the most expensive and desirable brands have for years been promoted as containing ‘one hundred per cent agave’.

2.39 Distillers like Jose Cuervo have vast acreages of the plant growing on their own estates.

2.47 But even this is not enough to meet the rising demand.

2.54 For a plant to reach maturity for harvest, takes a minimum of eight years. But a decade ago, prices were so low that many farmers gave up growing it altogether.

3.06 And things don’t change too quickly around here. Some have been slow to grasp the new opportunity.

3.15 But for a small-scale farmer, investing all your money in agave production carries with it certain risks.

3.24 This farmer worked for years as a labourer in the USA. Back home, he invested everything in the agave boom. And he stands to make a fortune.

3.37 Now his watchman tells him he’s been robbed.

3.46 And it’s not the first time either. With plants worth eighty US dollars each, a couple of ‘coyotes’ in a pick-up truck can make a lot of money by simply driving into a field at night and loading up.

3.58 Reaped before full maturity, this empty patch represents six years of investment and thousands of US dollars of profit - all disappeared overnight.

4.08 IGNACIO RUIZ, SMALL-SCALE FARMER, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"Now it seems that the authorities are taking the producers more seriously because it is a very serious problem we have. You can see we have some guards here, but if something happened to them… If you have someone coming in to steal from your fields and you kill someone who’s stealing. And the bad thing is that if I arrive here to my field and I find someone who’s stealing and I kill him, I go to jail. And if the robber kills me, nothing happens because no-one knows who it is. The government doesn’t give any guarantees to the producers. "

5.00 At the police station in Tequila, there’s a full-time task force devoted to the problem.

5.09 It’s a job they take very seriously. With big money at stake, the thieves are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They often carry weapons.

5.21 The task force mounts routine patrols in the fields surrounding the town. But they’re also ready to respond to any call if ‘coyotes’ are spotted in action.

5.32 But as always, the real culprits are the unscrupulous men at the top of the chain.

5.38 SALVADOR RODRIQUES, TEQUILA DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SECURITY, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"There are factories which are buying the stolen agave. There are people inside the companies who are involved in the agave stealing. And through the medium of these people, the stolen agave goes into the factory."

5.57 Arrests are common on these patrols. But these days, the thieves are fighting back.

6.06 Around these parts, the trade in stolen agave has become more lucrative than the marijuana business. And that means the robbers carry automatic weapons.

6.18 With the aid of so-called 'quad bikes', the policemen can cut across the fields in hot pursuit. And their capture rate has improved.

6.28 But the ‘Commandante’ admits that even with twice the number of men, there’s too much ground to cover. And it’s impossible to predict where the thieves will strike next..

6.41 In this particular exercise, the police have struck it lucky and the unarmed ‘coyotes’ just take to their heels.

6.53 But if the camera had not been recording, it’s unlikely that the cops would have been so gentle.

7.02 In reality, it’s the thieves who have the upper hand more often than not. And it's a problem that's growing.

7.13 At Tequila Herradura they have a different solution to the agave shortage.

7.20 They’re investigating ways to change their production process in order to accommodate the crisis.

7.27 Managing Director Senor Ramon Valdez believes it’s necessary to change the regulations regarding agave content. And he intends to move his marketing strategy away from the concept of hundred per cent agave being a sign of excellence.

7.43 RAMON VALDEZ, GENERAL MANAGER, TEQUILA HERRADURA:

"By the crisis of the Agave, we decided to change the way that we produce the tequila. That tequila especially. In the past, we produce only 100%. But actually, the cost of the Agave has increased almost 800%, so it’s impossible to sustain the share of market and offer an adequate price to the consumer with these prices. "

8.11 Already the production of premium tequilas is down almost fifty per cent. But the foreigners just can’t get enough. The whole image of the product has caught the imagination of people around the world. And the aggressive but strategic marketing drive has landed the distillers in a dilemma of their own making.

8.35 Tourists have an image of tequila. The agave was once cooked in wood-fired ovens and fermented in huge wooden barrels.

8.45 And even if they understand that the process has been modernised, the most expensive brands are still a hundred per cent agave.

8.56 You can pay over a hundred dollars a bottle.

9.01 And the fastest-growing market is the high-end brands. So the counterfeiters have jumped in to fill the gap. And while Herradura tries to negotiate the general acceptance of lower agave content, the criminals are happy to tell the consumer anything.

9.16 So in bars and cantinas all around the world the craze for the Mexican drink continues. But when the average punter is downing his slammers, he’d have to be a connoisseur to know if he’s buying real tequila.

9.35 ENDS