As one of Bermuda's few exporters to Europe, Gosling's has seen its rum become less expensive for consumers to buy on the other side of the Atlantic, thanks to the plummeting dollar.

However, according to the company's managing director Charles Gosling, the currency's weakness has not given the well-known Black Seal brand a competitive edge in the rum market itself.

As probably the Island's largest importer of wine from Europe, Gosling's has felt the pinch of paying dollars to buy commodities priced in euros.

And the currency fluctuations are forcing the company to rethink its preferred policy of maintaining its price list for a full year.

"The majority of our market for rum is in the US and Canada, so the falling dollar does not affect things too much," Mr. Gosling said yesterday. "We are also being distributed in the UK, Italy and Ireland, but because virtually all of the rum produced in the world is priced in US dollars, the entire category is going to be cheaper for European consumers.

"There is a small amount of rum being produced in the French Caribbean, but that's not really significant to the market."

The dollar's weakness was being felt much more strongly on the importing side of the business, Mr. Gosling said.

"We try to keep our wine prices down and we have prided ourselves on having a price list that stands for the entire year," he said. "But the way the euro has been going, now we have to look at prices on a shipment by shipment basis.

"A lot of the wines we bring in are from small- and medium-sized wineries and are priced in euros — unless we get them through the UK and then they're priced in pounds.

"We appreciate that restaurants, which are our customers, like to promote one wine list during the year and changes can mean a significant investment on their part. But because of the way the currency has gone we have had to adjust."

Mr. Gosling did not support the idea of Government reducing duties on European imports to minimise the impact of the weakening dollar on businesses and the community.

"What I would like to see is for the message to get to Europe that Bermuda is no longer as expensive as it was — it's like a half-price sale right now," Mr. Gosling said. "Now is the time to come and see us. That is the way that Government could help business.

"I'm very reluctant to support special concessions on duty, because if things change around and the US dollar becomes stronger, then people are very reluctant to hand it back."