Clandestine cachaça is part of cachaça culture

There are over 4,000 producers of cachaça in Brazil. Legal producers, that is. These 4,000 producers have done everything by the book. They have registered with the official national agency that oversees production. They pay their taxes. They get the proper stamps for each bottle they sell. They also have health inspectors come to their premises to ensure that they are sanitary.

But, there are at least 11,000 clandestine cachaça producers. These producers don’t pay taxes, don’t get proper stamps for each bottle they sell, and don’t have health inspections.

There’s been an increasing movement, though still relatively small, among some cachaça heads to encourage consumers to buy only from legitimate producers. And, indeed, this makes a lot of sense. Not only do taxes get paid, but the consumer can be assured that the producer has received a clean bill of health from the right inspectors. It seems obvious that this is the right thing to do.

Still, there are nearly three times as many clandestine producers as legitimate producers. So what does that tell us? Well, first it tells us that enforcement, either by choice or circumstance, is not happening. Second, it tells us that many, many consumers buy products from these clandestine operations. Third, it tells us that not all of these clandestine producers are fly by night operators who don’t care about consumer well-being. Because if they were, they wouldn’t sell any products.

These producers are part of a broader informality in much of Brazilian life, which isn’t easily wiped away by modest campaigns to change attitudes. Rules get written, but don’t get followed, and certainly don’t get enforced.

We see this elsewhere; for example, in the employment of domestic workers. By law, domestic workers must work for employers formally and be registered with the government. In reality, the vast majority don’t. In 2018, of the total 6.24 million domestic workers, 4.42 million were working under the table.

I don’t mean to imply here that no other country in the world has an informality issue, where certain parts of society, despite having formal rules, get to do what they want. Far from it. But informality is a big part of Brazil. No matter the effort to combat it, certain people like that informality, and think that, in some way, it makes life better.

The fact is that the informal, clandestine cachaça sector is here. It’s strong. It’s not going anywhere. So, there either has to be an acceptance of this reality, or there needs to be an actual plan for dealing with them, which doesn’t involve completely destroying the sector. Either way, clandestine cachaça is part of the culture. Deal with it.