SCOTCH Whisky has been granted special protection in Burma to help stem the tide of fake copycats in the market.

The move allows the Burmese authorities to take legal action against a number of products being wrongly passed off as Scotch Whisky, according to Alan Park, the legal adviser to the Scotch Whisky Association.

It follows a 65 per cent jump in genuine Scotch Whisky exports to Burma between 2012 and 2013.

The total value of sales to the country in south east Asia was said to have risen from £888,734 to £2 million.