Breakthrough in low-alcohol

As Gordon Brown and the Chancellor drop hints that tax cuts may be on the way to help Britain's hard-pressed families, a committee of MPs says it's time to look at setting a minimum price for alcohol, which is simply another consumer tax.

Yet politicians and officials can sometimes get it right, even if the journey seems somewhat tortuous. For over a year we have been working with the Government to persuade the EU Commission to permit reduced-alcohol wines made using reverse osmosis and spinning-cone technologies. Put simply, cooler climates can produce naturally low-alcohol wines in the 9 11% abv range; it's a bit more difficult in hotter climates - you can harvest early or reduce the alcohol content using the above technologies.

In an era when politicians are seeking evidence the drinks industry is responding to concerns about alcohol misuse, you'd think there would be ready support for moves to extend consumer choice of low-alcohol products.

Yet, as is often the case with complex regulations, a mixed pattern emerged with France, apparently, able to experiment with wines made using reverse osmosis and sell them domestically, Spain able to do the same using spinning-cone techno logies, but no standard rules for these products across the EU.

Now, following a new EU ruling, the Food Standards Agency has confirmed UK consumers will be able to see a wider choice of lower-alcohol wines on store shelves. Producers will still be restricted from reducing the alcohol content of wine by any more than 2% using these two technologies and limited to marketing them for experimental purposes, but at last consumers throughout Europe should get the choice of reduced alcohol products they have been demanding.

Focusing on what the consumer wants is a good way of building a business. So when MPs call for mini mum pricing of alcohol I wonder who they are thinking about. Giving consumers what they want is right, but we can't pick and choose when it suits us. I haven't met any shoppers recently asking for the price of their weekly shop to go up.

Jeremy Beadles is chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association.

• Harpers Says...