The 2026 finance law authorizes the Department of Reunion to create a tax on strong alcohol, primarily targeting local alcohol.
A tax that could reach 1,741 euros per hectoliter of pure alcohol (HAP) for the rum, while it will be limited to 200 euros per PAH of imported alcohol. Objective sought, notably by Senator Stéphane Fouassin, who successfully carried this amendment : significantly increase the selling price of rum, currently the lowest of strong alcohols, to fight against alcoholism. Initially, the text concerned all overseas departments. Immediately the West Indian elected officials, fervent defenders of Guadeloupean and Martinican production and strongly linked to the identity of these territories, stepped up to the plate. Victorin Lurel (senator from Guadeloupe from the Socialist group, Environmentalist and Republican) had a counter-amendment adopted reducing the scope of the initial text to the Meeting only. Not without being ironic about the real motivations of the tax : “That the department of Reunion obtains a government favor to allow it at best to finance a prevention policy and at worst to simply replenish its coffers, this is a measure that it is not up to me to judge”, he declared. Since the Fouassin amendment was made public at the beginning of December, Reunion rum makers activated all their networks to have the project rejected. I just don't. Since the end of January, the agricultural world shows their support, fearing an overall weakening of the cane-sugar-rum sector, already heavily penalized by the cyclones of 2024 and 2025. A consultation is announced to the Departmental Council, who must set the levels of taxes that it intends to impose on rum and other strong alcohols.
