Colombia — agent-bev Library

Market status

Licensed/monopoly. Colombia permits private import, wholesale and distribution subject to customs, sanitary, tax and local operating controls. The market is mixed because distilled spirits are subject to a departmental revenue-monopoly model for production and introduction where a department elects to exercise it; wine, aperitifs and similar products are generally of free production and introduction, subject to the consumption-tax system. All alcoholic beverages supplied to the public or in bulk require sanitary authorisation under the beverage-alcohol rules.

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Who can trade

Import: An importer must be registered for customs and tax purposes. The Ministry of Commerce states that importers should be registered with the Chamber of Commerce and hold a Registro Único Tributario (RUT) with the import activity; customs rules require importers and exporters to be domiciled or represented in Colombia and registered in the RUT with the corresponding status. Alcoholic beverages supplied to the public, including bulk products, require a sanitary registration issued by the Instituto Nacional de Vigilancia de Medicamentos y Alimentos (INVIMA). Import-and-sell and bulk-import modalities are recognised for sanitary registration.

Wholesale and distribution: Establishments that manufacture, hydrate, package, store, distribute, transport, commercialise or sell alcoholic beverages must meet the sanitary requirements and hold a favourable or favourable-with-requirements sanitary concept from the competent health authority. For products subject to consumption tax, producers, importers and distributors must comply with departmental or District treasury registration, accounting, declaration, payment and movement-control rules. Payment of the consumption tax or departmental participation is a condition for sale or distribution.

State monopoly role: Departments may exercise the revenue monopoly over production and introduction of distilled spirits and potable alcohol for making spirits. Where exercised, production may be direct or through third parties, and introduction requires a departmental permission. Each department exercises distribution and commercialisation monopoly only over distilled spirits it produces directly. Where a department does not exercise the monopoly, distilled spirits fall under the consumption-tax regime.

Business-to-business (B2B) online sale: Colombian electronic-commerce law recognises data messages and electronic contracting, but an online order does not replace customs, sanitary registration, tax, monopoly-permission, premises or destination-control requirements. Specific treatment of independent B2B marketplace, broker and payment-intermediary models, and wholesale-only municipal premises rules: Not yet sourced.

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Customs and duty

Tariff headings: Beer: 2203, beer made from malt. Wine: 2204, wine of fresh grapes, including fortified wine, and certain grape must. Cider: 2206, other fermented beverages, including cider, perry, mead and qualifying mixtures. Spirits: 2208, undenatured ethyl alcohol below 80% alcohol by volume, spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages.

Import duty: Colombia’s customs tariff is adopted in the national tariff schedule and uses the Harmonized System, the Andean Community common nomenclature (NANDINA) eight-digit structure and Colombian national ninth and tenth digits. The Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (DIAN) provides the customs-tariff consultation tool. The payable duty treatment depends on the exact ten-digit classification, origin, preference, quota or other measure; a four-digit heading does not establish the duty for a shipment.

Excise and participation: Beer, sifons, refajos and mixtures have a separate consumption-tax chapter, with responsibility on producers and importers and rules for national and foreign products. Liquors, wines, aperitifs and similar products are subject to a departmental consumption-tax structure with a specific component based on alcohol volume and an ad valorem component based on the certified public-sale price. Where a department exercises the distilled-spirits monopoly, a departmental participation replaces the ordinary consumption tax for the monopoly product. Imported products are declared and paid through the foreign-products consumption-tax fund and destination declarations to the department or the District also apply.

Territorial treatment: Consumption-tax rules refer to consumption in departmental jurisdictions and include rules for products introduced into special customs-regime zones. Foreign liquors, wines, aperitifs and similar products imported into the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago have a special treatment unless later introduced to the rest of Colombia; products for that territory require destination marking. Maicao, Uribia and Manaure have a special sanitary-registration regime for alcoholic beverages imported and commercialised there. Complete special-regime treatment for every free zone, bonded store and local border arrangement: Not yet sourced.

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Labelling

Required language(s): Alcohol-specific mandatory wording is prescribed in Spanish. Domestic alcoholic-beverage labels may not use foreign-language expressions, legends or images that mislead the public into believing the product was made abroad; brand or manufacturer protections can allow some foreign-language expression. Imported products may use a complementary label for required Colombian particulars. General all-imported-label language rule beyond the alcohol-specific Spanish warnings and domestic-label restrictions: Not yet sourced.

Mandatory warnings: Every alcoholic beverage must declare “El Exceso de Alcohol es Perjudicial para la Salud” and “Prohíbase el expendio de bebidas embriagantes a menores de edad”. Distilled beverages must also include the Colombia-consumption statement required by law.

Alcohol strength: Packaged alcoholic beverages declare alcoholic strength in alcoholimetric degrees or percentage by volume at 20 degrees Celsius. The degree must also appear in advertising and on the container for the products covered by the liquor-tax law.

Allergens: Allergen declaration rules for alcoholic beverages: Not yet sourced.

Origin and business particulars: Labels show the product name and mark, manufacturer, hydrator or packer details, importer name, address and city where applicable, INVIMA sanitary registration, net content by volume and lot code. Products hydrated or packaged in Colombia from imported bulk must state that operation; products made from foreign bulk or made abroad must clearly state origin.

Wine particulars: Sparkling and bubbling wine categories must use the prescribed category expression. Wines of the same brand with different ageing times and denominations of origin may be covered by one sanitary registration only if the stated physical-chemical similarity conditions are met.

Label registration: The sanitary-registration application includes the label information. The registration holder must inform INVIMA of permanent label changes and comply with the label chapter.

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Age and sale limits

Legal purchase age: 18. Colombian law prohibits the sale of intoxicating beverages to minors, and the age of majority is 18.

Sale-hour and channel limits: There is no single ordinary national closing hour sourced for all alcohol channels. Districts and municipalities may set zones and hours for establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold and may adopt restrictions on alcohol sales based on public-health risk mapping. The National Police and Coexistence Code also requires ordinary economic-activity compliance, including land-use rules, current mercantile registration, opening notice to the police station and compliance with applicable operating hours.

Regional layers: Establishments involving sale and consumption of alcohol can be treated as higher-impact premises for land-use and local-hours purposes. Mayors can set operating hours for establishments such as bars, clubs, taverns and similar premises. City-by-city hours, temporary dry-law rules and wholesale-delivery-hour rules: Not yet sourced.

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Protected names

Protection framework: Denominaciones de origen are protected within the Andean industrial-property system under Decisión 486, and the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC) maintains Colombia’s protected-denomination information and authorisation framework. Trade agreements also protect listed geographical indications for wines, spirits and beers.

Verified examples: Champagne and Rioja are listed wine geographical indications in the Colombia-European Union framework. Cognac, Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey are listed spirit geographical indications. Bayerisches Bier, Münchener Bier and Českobudějovické pivo are listed beer geographical indications. Colombian law separately recognises and protects Viche/Biche and its derivatives as ancestral, artisanal and traditional beverages and collective heritage of the Black and Afro-Colombian communities of the Pacific coast; its sanitary category is separately regulated. These examples are not exhaustive.

Additional Colombian protected wine, beer and cider names: Not yet sourced.

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GTIN authority

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) member organisation: GS1 Colombia. Its guidance identifies it as the Colombian GS1 member organisation and covers GS1 identification, barcodes and GTIN allocation.

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Not yet sourced

Independent B2B marketplace, broker and payment-intermediary treatment; wholesale-only municipal premises rules; complete special-regime treatment for every free zone, bonded store and local border arrangement; general all-imported-label language rule beyond the alcohol-specific Spanish warnings and domestic-label restrictions; allergen declaration rules for alcoholic beverages; city-by-city hours, temporary dry-law rules and wholesale-delivery-hour rules; additional Colombian protected wine, beer and cider names: Not yet sourced.