Farmers are proposed to be allowed to produce an additional two litres of poultrymeal for quality testing

A proposal to allow grain farmers with agritourism farmhouses to make an extra two litres of home-made alcohol, known as 'home-made' alcohol, as a sample for certification purposes only, is making its way through Parliament.      

This quantity would be used for quality testing – after evaluation by the Agricultural Agency, farmers would receive a national heritage certificate for the product and be able to produce it.  

Now the law allows them to produce up to 100 litres of homemade alcohol per year.

On Wednesday, the Parliament's Economics Committee approved amendments to the Law on Alcohol Control.

As Kazys Starkevičius, the initiator of the amendments, told the committee, currently owners of rural tourism homesteads do not produce such beverages because they are not certified. 

The current procedure stipulates that the homemade drink must be used for personal or family consumption or tasting on the spot and cannot be transported, which prevents farmers from submitting samples for evaluation and obtaining a certificate and starting production.

Since November last year, the Parliament has made it legal for farmers to produce homemade drinks of up to 65 degrees of strength in agritourism farmhouses, recognised as national heritage products. Up to 100 litres a year can be produced, but only for on-site use and not for sale.   

The beverages must be bottled in a glass container of no more than one litre and will be labelled with a number, the name of the farmer who produced the beverage, the date and time of production, the composition of the product and the percentage of ethyl alcohol by volume.