Hail 2010, Year of More Liberal Booze

As we all know, being a wine lover in Thailand is an elitist thing. Imports being taxed over 200%, because wine lovers are considered to be snobs who can afford any price. An average bottle sets you back at least the double of the price you pay in the West. Or even in Vietnam or Cambodia for that, former colonies still honoring their former master’s way of life.

Some good news for a change. There’s a fierce price war between local alcohol producers and importers looming. Prices could fall, partially at least. Starting 2010 the Asean Free Trade Area Afta will be fully established. Afta reduces and – for some products – entirely drops import taxes. Darn free trade and globalization. Meaning imported alcohol will also be cheaper. Import duty on alcoholic beverages is cut down to zero, nullifying the customs tariff.

That doesn’t go down well with our purists who not only pushed for laws that reinterpret what a beer calendar can look like. The radicals of Chamlong Srimuang’s Santi Asoke sect successfully prevented legal Thai companies producing legal alcoholic products from listing on the Thai stock exchange. Perfectly consistent with his yellow insurrection against Thai democracy. But change is in the air:

Imported alcohol will be cheaper, which will add to the social problems associated with alcohol in this beautiful kingdom, a TAN report tells us. Truth being, alcoholism has always been a dire problem around here. But neither social purity campaigns nor a prohibition solve that problem, and don’t you love the blurred bottle of whiskey or beer in TV … Hardly a drinker decides to become a drinker. He’s made a drinker.

Now fact is that imported alcohol will become more affordable beginning 2010. Expect a wider selection of beers and stronger stuff. I may be able to afford a better bottle of wine once in a while – and Thailand will descend into more chaos because this generation loves alcohol and drunkards will be the leaders of tomorrow. Or not.

We learn that the average consumption of a Thai is 8.47 liters of alcohol per year. That’s the 40th place out of 143 countries worldwide. The world’s average consumption? 6.2 liters per annum. According to the National Publich Health Foundation Thailand is already losing 250 billion baht a year due to alcohol-related health issues. The foundation expects an increase of 16% per year because of cheaper foreign booze about to flood the Thai market.

As with cigarette packs, do we need pictures of drunk driving victims on a bottle of Johnnie Walker? A leading cause of death in Thailand are traffic accidents, half of them are caused by drunk drivers. It’s always a failure of society as a whole when the majority has to pay for the irresponsibility of the minority.

A torn up corpse on a nice bottle of Malbec won’t prevent me from enjoying that fine wine. True that a graphic measure may stop a drunk driver or two from departing for that last fatal trip. But I doubt that I drank a single can less beer just because Thai authorities don’t allow me to buy alcohol in the morning and the afternoon. Once I was really thirsty I just bought 31 cans. That’s over ten liters, and the Kafkaesque law allows anyone to buy alcohol anytime as long as it’s over ten liters …

Ah, maybe no alcohol bottles in New Year’s gift baskets will solve the nation’s alcoholism and related problems. The dear people are reminded that giving alcohol as a gift is the same as cursing someone …

So when Afta comes into effect, you better be ready. Party hard this New Year’s Eve. Use up what’s left in your fridge. 2010’s the year to restock.

While the internal excise tax will be raised to make all booze more expensive again. In order to protect domestic producers and the population (from) itself.




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December 26, 2009 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Food & Drink, Health, Body & Mind, Nightlife & Entertainment, Society 

Comments

5 Responses to “Hail 2010, Year of More Liberal Booze”

  1. Steve on December 27th, 2009 10.41 am

    As a wine lover myself this sounds like a very good move. Unfortunately it won’t include the wonderful wines of France, California, Spain, Italy, Portugal or anywhere else that makes decent wine. I believe it only includes Asean countries and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any world class wines coming from any of those countries. It is a step in the right direction though and we can only hope that tariff’s from other countries will eventually be lowered as well.

    (BD: My hope is that imports via Asean, and be it rebottled imports/reimports, may enjoy zero tax. I’m sure local wine distributors will find a way.)

  2. BigDummy Mirror » Cheap Beer, Wine and Liquor Coming to Thailand? on January 2nd, 2010 2.50 pm

    [...] http://absolutelybangkok.com/hail-2010-year-of-more-liberal-booze/ Some good news for a change. There’s a fierce price war between local alcohol producers and importers looming. Prices could fall, partially at least. Starting 2010 the Asean Free Trade Area Afta will be fully established. Afta reduces and – for some products – entirely drops import taxes. Darn free trade and globalization. Meaning imported alcohol will also be cheaper. Import duty on alcoholic beverages is cut down to zero, nullifying the customs tariff. [...]

  3. Leosia on January 4th, 2010 2.20 pm

    When I visited Hanoi a few months ago I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few specialist wine shops in the old town with a very good selection (especially French of course) at prices considerably lower than Thailand. I don’t know the situation regarding import taxes on wine in Vietnam but it seemed to me to be a much better deal.

  4. Jaded on January 5th, 2010 11.19 am

    When I first came to Thailand it was very difficult to find anything drinkable that was reasonably priced. That situation seems to have changed. For instance the Mont Clair you tweeted about recently is a decent enough table wine and relatively inexpensive if purchased in large enough quantities! The quality and the storage of wine seems to be improving and there is obviously strong demand. A friend of mine brought me to a local bar recently that sells a decent glass of locally made red wine for 40 baht. I have to admit that I didn’t believe it was possible until I tasted it. Buying Thai wine off the shelf has always been a bad experience for me but perhaps some of the local products are well made and its problems associated with transportation and storage that make the product undrinkable. I don’t know where the wine came from but I was told its local.

    It’s true that its easier to get a decent glass of wine in any of the former French colonies that border Thailand but that’s because they know about wine. Thailand’s producers and distributors have been on a steep learning curve but I think the situation seems to be improving. I strongly disagree with Steve that only established wine producers can compete. In the 1970s Monty Python lampooned Australian table wines as having a “bouquet like an aboriginal’s armpit.” They were doing this at a time when the height of “sophisticated” bourgeois dining was a bottle of Blue Nun. The Aussie product, even when properly transported and stored, had to overcome strong prejudice to achieve its position of respect today. Asian winemakers have a similar struggle but their market is the fastest growing wine market on the planet and giving them this sort of competitive advantage should help accelerate improvement and develop the local market. We will all benefit from this although it’s difficult to imagine prices dropping much below 40 baht a glass …

  5. BangkokDan on January 5th, 2010 11.30 am

    Agree Jaded, for once the market is on the consumer’s side.

    These days you can get a very decent bottle of New World wines for 400-500 baht. Unthinkable some years ago.

    For Penfolds or Jacob’s Creek you paid if not a third more or double.

    Haven’t found a local bottle yet that surpasses the quality of better priced imports from Australia, Argentina or Chile, even though the Khao Yai wineries produce outstanding results since quite some time.

    BangkokDan

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