Bilimoria plans to sell Cobra beer in India, USA

Karan Bilimoria, Hyderabad-born NRI beer maker plans to export Cobra Beer to India, USA and South Africa in a big way.

"In 20 years China has gone from nowhere to become the world's second biggest beer market. The same could happen in India, where the market is only just beginning to liberalise. Indians only drink half a litre of beer per person, per year," Bilimoria told PTI on Tuesday.

Cobra was founded in 1989 by Bilimoria who devised the recipe with the help of a Prague-trained Indian master brewer. The lager is brewed under licence in the UK and until now has been exported to India only on an ad hoc basis.

However, the imports attract a duty of 400 per cent, and Bilimoria is seeking to buy or forge links with an Indian brewery to avoid tax and boost his product's international sales.

So far Cobra has been generating less than 10 per cent of its pounds 50 million retail sales overseas.